Heated Encounters
by LeahSkywanker
Summary: Moving in with her best friend should be fun but all it was it doing was just blurring the lines between friendship and possibly something more. Lucy x Natsu story, dragon slayer mating themes.
1. Chapter 1

Nodding at her landlady's words, Lucy let the information sink in. Huge gas leak, building unsafe, still have to pay rent?

' _What the hell am I going to do?'_

She moaned internally as she shuffled away from her uninhabitable apartment, her landlady was so going to raid her wardrobe, images of the old woman clad in Lucy's revealing outfits filled her mind. She shuddered at the thought. She couldn't do anything about it, it wasn't worth getting poisoned just to save a few pieces of cloth, she could always buy other stuff.

Walking to the guild hall she scoured the Magnolia Times newspaper for a apartment or just a room that she could rent for the foreseeable future. She didn't really have many options, she couldn't afford the prices of the rooms at Fairy Hills where the majority of the female mages of Fairy Tail stayed. Besides, she needed a break from all that crazy.

She loved her guild mates but being surrounded by them day and night would just be too much. They walked in on her enough when she lived away from them, the amount of times Erza had came in on Lucy bathing and tried to join her was astonishing.

So that was completely out of the question and she had no idea where Gray or Natsu lived, she always imagined Natsu to live in a tree house or a tent. It would explain why he always carried around a bed roll and supplies.

"Roommate wanted, must be slim with big breasts and attractive face, no uglies allowed" She scoffed at the ad.

 _'Utter pig.'_

All of the housing offers in the paper were written by creeps. Not wanting to be felt up in her sleep or be filmed in the shower she put the paper in a bin she was passing by. Maybe she should just camp out in the woods for a night or two until she could figure this out, falling asleep under the calming shine of the stars didn't sound like such a bad idea.

It wouldn't be the first time Lucy had to do it, when she ran away from her father's estate she had slept rough for weeks until she managed to scrounge up some jewel from odd jobs around Hargeon. Not being part of a guild made it hard for people to take you seriously and let you work for them.

It was always low paying jobs she managed to get but anything was better than nothing when you needed the money for your next meal.

She knew she could always bathe at the guild hall or in the communal baths. Somehow convincing herself that this was a good idea she turned around and went towards the nearest camping shop, ready to get her set up.

Managing to get all the equipment she needed and some tinned food from the supermarket that she could cook on her self powered mini stove, she got all of it for a mere 30,000 Jewel, she was beyond happy.

Dread about her apartment was all but gone and it was replaced with a feeling of excitement, with that in mind she marched into the woods on the south of Magnolia to find the perfect setup for her home away from home.

* * *

"Just a little bit more, c'mon you stupid pole, stay stuck in the ground." Lucy panted as she wrestled with her tent, the ground was just too hard, not wanting to call it quits just yet she called out her strongest spirit to give her some much needed assistance.

"Mooove out the way Miss Lucy I'll get this sorted for your mooost lovely body." Taurus bellowed as he smacked the poles with the side of his axe, cutting her workload in half considering how much she was struggling.

Her perverted spirit, now finished with his task, took it upon himself to gaze at Lucy's half naked body. Rolling her eyes she pulled his key out and winked at him.

"Bye Taurus thank you for helping me, you can stop your dirty thoughts now, mooove along" She said mimicking him as she returned him to the celestial realm.

Tying up the fabric of the tent so it was secure she crawled inside and collapsed. Utterly exhausted from everything that had happened throughout the day, she pulled her pink comforter over her body and drifted off to sleep.

Her dreams were full of cows trying to pull her clothes off and her landlady helping, continuously saying "They would look better on me anyway."

Jolting up she grabbed her chest and realized she still had her clothes on and she was alone.

"That was terrifying, what a horrible nightmare." Lucy whimpered as she pulled the blanket around her shoulders, the harsh cold wasn't something she was used to anymore. She was used to relaxing in a scalding hot bath surrounded by scented candles and then getting out into a warm fluffy towel.

All she had to get out into here was a scruffy looking hooded jumper she had brought from the camping shop and some cargo shorts. It really wasn't her style but she needed to change out of these sweat covered clothes.

"I wonder if there's a river around here? I could do with a quick dip, good job I always have emergency body wash in my bag." Rummaging through her backpack she found her stash of strawberry shower gel. She stumbled out of her tent, it was pitch black outside, she could just see ahead of her because of how bright the moon was.

Without all the light pollution from the middle of town, she could actually see the stars and constellations that she loved so much. Following the quiet tinkling of a stream she happened to come across, she walked alongside it until she found the small pond that it led to. It was large enough for her to have a soak in peace and surprisingly not too cold.

Stripping off her sweat stained tank top and mini skirt, she sank into the water in just her lacy lingerie, there was no way she was going to wear any kind of underwear that you could buy from a hiking shop, that would just be wrong.

The water felt lovely and cool on her skin, she poured some of the strawberry liquid into her hands and rubbed it over her body. She found it strange how bathing here was just as satisfying washing here then it was in her own bathtub, at least this was 10 times bigger and she could stretch out as much as she wanted without the risk of overflowing the bath and ruining her floor.

There was also the added fact that there was nobody around for miles, there was always someone barging into her washroom.

She felt something tickle her leg, assuming it was a fish she batted it away with her leg "Damn slippery thing, go away." She kicked it even harder but was then dragged under water.

Flailing like a maniac she fought for her life, thinking it was a killer fish or maybe a huge octopus. When she saw who it actually was she kicked and punched the idiot.

"I knew I smelled you, what are you doing in my pond? Ow what the hell Luce stop hitting me!" Natsu yelped as he was struck aggressively by the furious blonde.

"Why are you everywhere I am when I'm naked? Why are you here? Can I have no peace? You are such an idiot!" She shouted, her voice echoing in the otherwise silent night.

She inhaled deeply through her nose, as if trying to calm herself down before she killed the dragon slayer. Thinking of a reason not to kill her pink haired best friend was proving very difficult.

"You're not-oh you are naked, heh heh." Natsu giggled naughtily as he lit up his hand as if to get a better look at her wet body.

This resulted in a swift kick to the face. Natsu floated on the surface of the water, groaning slightly. He had a bright red mark across his nose from the perfectly executed Lucy kick.

She smiled, proud of herself. "Don't look at me Natsu I'm putting my clothes on, then we'll talk. You're such a moron, I swear you ask for a beating half the time."

She looked over at the dragon slayer who was facing away from the blonde, giving her some privacy. He could be a good boy when he wanted to.

Sliding the ugly jumper over her head and pulling up the even uglier shorts she turned around. Time to get some answers.

"Natsu you can look now." She said, he turned around and frowned at her appearance.

"Luce whose clothes are those? Are you out here with a boy? Where the hell is he the little coward, I'll kick his ass."

She had to laugh at his idiocy.

"Natsu can I not just wear normal clothes without you thinking I'm fucking some guy and then stole them? They're mine idiot."

He shook his head.

"Lucy is that actually you? Are you a celestial mage ma'am?" He looked at her face carefully, trying to decide if this actually was his best friend Lucy Heartfilia. "I think it is you Lucy but you just look so different, why the wardrobe change?"

She looked down awkwardly. "I'm having a little camp out tonight and wanted to wear something that would be appropriate for that, sorry I'm not meeting your perverted ideals. Stop dodging the question, why did you say this was your pond?"

"I think you look fine no matter what you wear, just isn't like you is all. Well it is my pond, my house is just behind those trees" He pointed to a small cluster of trees.

"This is part of my land, me and Happy fish here, even though I don't think there are any fish left anymore. We must've eaten them all."

He laughed loudly and sat on the grass next to her. "I was looking for something I dropped in here earlier but found you instead." He poked her stomach and sighed.

"It's a bit cold for camping isn't it Luce? Come stay at my house if you want. I don't have a bed but you can have my sofa, I'd appreciate the company, especially since it's you. Happy's gone to visit the exceeds with Panther Lily. It's too late for you to go back to your house anyway, you'd never find your way back."

Her heart swelled at his words, this man had saved her when he met her in Hargeon, he brought her to Fairy Tail and gave her a family. No matter how she treated him sometimes he was the closest friend she had and she loved him. Nodding she stood up and grabbed her bag.

"Thank you Natsu, I appreciate it."

He scratched the back of his neck nervously as he opened the door to his house, it was a cute little cottage that looked a little rough around the edges but had a nice homely feeling about it. That described Natsu to a tee, Natsu just felt like home to her. But when she saw what lay beyond the front door her eye twitched and she squealed in shock.

"Natsu what the hell, you can't even see the sofa" Her eyes scanned the room, rotting fish, moldy pots, dirty clothes, you name it, it was there. The smell was horrendous, it was something you could almost taste in the back of your throat.

A small walkway was created that was obviously cleared so he and Happy could get to where they needed to but apart from that mess was everywhere. A beautiful disaster.

She glared at him accusingly "So this is why you always come to my house, your home is a pig sty." Natsu chuckled nervously.

"Yeah well that and your house just feels like home now, I don't like sleeping here most of the time because it just feels empty."

Rolling her eyes at his obvious attempt to diffuse her anger Natsu ran out of the room shouting over his shoulder. "I'm going to take a shower, make yourself at home or whatever."

Pushing the sleeves of her jumper up and pulling her long blonde hair into ponytail she was determined that she was going to get this done by the end of the night. She couldn't sleep knowing the swamp monster was next to her waiting to get it's next prey.

Refusing to be eaten by a mythical monster that definitely lived in Natsu's house she dove in and hoped for the best.

* * *

An hour later Natsu still hadn't returned from his shower, she was kind of glad for it as she got a lot of work done. With the floor now clear and the sofa cleaned she felt victorious. Doing a quick squirt of some strawberry scented spray she found in Natsu's cupboard she went to go find him.

She found it slightly odd that despite the state of cleanliness of his cottage he still had some spray to make it smell nice, kind of defeated the point, it was still going to smell, no spray could get rid of that stench.

She marched down the corridor that led to the bathroom, steam was coming from under the door. She tapped gently on the door.

"Natsu are you okay in there? Need a hand?" She heard him cough, some shuffling and then he opened the door. His face was bright red.

"N-no I'm okay Luce, I'll be out in a minute." Then he slammed the door shut again. She sighed in frustration "Okay but hurry up I need to pee, my bladder waits for no one and I don't want to mess up your now clean living room."

Ten minutes later and he sauntered into the room clad only in a towel, his pink hair was slicked back over his head, still damp from his shower. Lucy groaned in discomfort.

"I know this is your house but please cover up, my innocent eyes don't need to see your stomach muscles, no matter how lovely they are. I expect you to be fully clothed and in your hammock by the time I get back." as she walked to the bathroom she looked over her shoulder.

"Thank you Lucy for cleaning my awful house." She said sarcastically causing him to stutter out his gratitude.

After holding her pee for so long she moaned in relief as she emptied her bladder, knowing she was going to be there for a while longer she looked around the bathroom, it was just as filthy as the rest of the house but it would have to wait.

She needed a good sleep which she probably wouldn't be getting since she was sleeping on a lumpy sofa. She would have to ask Natsu if he were willing to let her stay a few nights more, it's way colder outside then she was expecting, she'd lose her toes if she continued to sleep in her tent.

Lucy couldn't help but notice that he had a lot of strawberry products in his bathroom, he must really like the smell of that stuff.

Once she was finished she walked back into the living room, just as she asked, Natsu was in his hammock, wearing a green t-shirt and tight boxer shorts that hugged his muscular legs and his hips in all the right ways.

Averting her eyes from her best friend's crotch, she walked over to her bed for the night and got settled in. Snuggled up with a blanket that smelt just like Natsu she sighed happily.

"Hey Natsu is it okay if I stay here for a bit longer? I wasn't just out there camping, my apartment-"

"I know Luce." Natsu interrupted smiling "I went over earlier and caught your landlady in your apartment wearing your clothes, I wanted to literally burn my eyes out, I got very close. She told me that there was a gas leak and everyone had to evacuate. Mavis only knows why she was in there and not affected by it. I ran away before I asked, that lady is as scary as she is ugly. So I was going to go look for you after I found my thing I lost in my pond but you were there. Crazy day."

He sat up and looked at Lucy ."You can stay here for as long as you want, you're my best friend after all. You're safer in here then you are out there. You scared me, come straight to me next time, what's mine is yours, you know that."

Her face warmed at his sweet words, was her idiot of a best friend actually being charming? She was about to thank him but his snores filled her ears, she giggled quietly.

"You'll never change Natsu, that's why I love you."

Putting her hand under the cushion of the sofa to try and fluff it up a bit so she didn't get neck ache, her hand came into contact with something. Peaking her curiously she pulled it out, she was surprised when it turned out to be a magazine of sorcerer weekly.

 _'Why would Natsu have a this magazine stuffed in his sofa?'_ Lucy pondered this as she flicked through it to see which issue it was. Some of the pages were slightly worn out from casual reading, what could be in here that would make Natsu read it so much it made the edges slightly torn.

It was an issue that included a section just for Lucy and Natsu, she remembered this, it was a nightmare getting him to agree to it, it took a whole day to get all the information and the photos taken, Natsu was a bit stiff with the poses they had to take, it felt like they were a couple the way they were made to act.

There was a picture stuck in the spine of the magazine, one that they had taken while they were waiting for their train back to magnolia from the photo shoot, it was a selfie of them both, except the angle Natsu had taken it from caused a very good view down her top, you could see both her breasts quite clearly.

What you couldn't see you could easily imagine. Natsu had a cheeky smile on his face and Lucy was looking at Natsu, eyes shining with adoration.

 _'I don't even remember this photo being taken.'_ She thought, slightly confused. They had so many photos taken that day it's no surprise she couldn't remember. All she could recall was being exhausted after that day and sleeping all the way back, this must've been just before she passed out.

As her eyes examined the image, she noticed that there were marks over the photo, it kind of looked like water stains but not quite.

It was just as worn looking as the magazine. Placing it back where she found it she looked over at Natsu, he was out cold.

Rolling onto her side she closed her eyes and tried to get some sleep, it was slightly chilly in the cottage so she pulled the borrowed blanket closer and breathed in the calming smell of wood smoke that was the fire dragon slayer and drifted into a dreamless sleep.

* * *

"Who turned up the heat." Lucy mumbled, the morning sun was blinding as Natsu didn't have any curtains, shielding her eyes from it she felt a pressure on her shoulder, peeking in between her fingers she saw the reason why the temperature felt so damn high.

Natsu was sprawled on the sofa next to her, his hand in between her legs grasping her inner thigh, his head buried in her neck, fast asleep. He always did this at her house, why did she expect him to not do it at his? Lucy tried to push him off but failed miserably.

Huffing, she gave up and decided to just try and go back to sleep. Just as she was drifting off the front door opened.

"Natsu you didn't show up so I thought i'd come and find-" Lisanna stopped talking when she saw Natsu and Lucy tangled up together on his sofa.

"Hi Lisanna how are you?" Lucy said like she wasn't cuddling with Natsu on his sofa and this was all completely normal whereas Lisanna had gone very pale and silent.

 _'This is going to be fun.'_ Lucy thought, still smiling awkwardly at the Strauss sibling.


	2. Chapter 2

_'This is so awkward why is she just standing there gawking.'_ Lucy was still awkwardly smiling at Lisanna, who still hadn't moved from the doorway.

"Did you want to come in properly and I can cook us up some breakfast or something? You'll catch a cold just standing there Lisanna." Lucy was trying to get the girl to either come in or go, just anything so that the damn door would close, it was absolutely freezing, even Natsu wasn't keeping her warm anymore.

"Natsu doesn't have any food in his house, that's why we were going to go out for breakfast." Lisanna mumbled, her eyes following where Natsu's hand was, still tightly holding Lucy's thigh. Looking down, Lucy remembered and laughed. "He's like an octopus when he sleeps isn't he?"

He just didn't want to let go, she tried to pull his hand off her but he rolled over and pulled her into a full body cuddle with no hope of escape. "I'm going to go, you two have fun." Lisanna said as she slammed the door shut.

 _'What's her problem.'_ The loud bang forced Natsu awake but it also caused him to release a huge glob of drool to fall out of his mouth and into Lucy's hair.

Squealing in disgust she kneed Natsu in the balls and jumped off the sofa, frantically trying to wipe the saliva out of her hair with her t-shirt, fully pulling it off so she could scrub it out easier. Natsu made a choked sound at the view.

Glancing over at him she saw his face had gone bright red "Natsu are you alright? I didn't actually hurt you did I?" Lucy asked quizzically to which he shook his head from side to side "N-no you just don't seem to have a top on." He stuttered out, completely embarrassed at the sight before him but not fully averting his gaze either.

She laughed at his innocent side, sometimes he really was funny.

"Natsu c'mon you've seen in less clothes than this and didn't even blink twice at it, we're breast friends? Get it?" She slapped her leg as she laughed at her own joke claiming how punny she was. What she didn't notice was the large bulge that appeared in her friend's boxers.

Natsu collapsed onto the sofa and yanked the blanket over himself, as if trying to cover something up. Lucy ignored his weird actions and held her hands out expectantly at him, which caused a cute puzzled expression to appear on his face.

"What are you doing?" He asked looking at her like she was slightly insane.

She huffed and crossed her arms, which caused her already large breasts to look even bigger as she unintentionally pushed them up "Give me your t-shirt, it was your drool that made me get mine all icky, I'm cold, you know I don't have any other clothes or do you want me to parade around your house in my underwear?" He held his hands protectively around his t-shirt. He looked around for something he could give her instead of his t-shirt.

His eyes lit up with an idea, pulling his scarf off he wrapped it around her neck and let the excess hang down her shoulders, covering her breasts and half way down her stomach, he smiled triumphantly.

"There how's that? It covers more than your usual tops do, you're welcome. Now c'mon, I'm starving, let's go get some food."

 _'He expects me to go out like this?'_ she screeched internally.

"You're so buying me a new top on the way, just so you know to bring some jewel." Lucy muttered as she gently rubbed her face against his scarf, it smelt wonderful and it was surprisingly keeping her very warm, like Natsu's fire magic was embedded into it's very stitches.

She supposed it would do for now. Natsu laughed and smiled cheekily "Anything for you Luce, I'm going to go grab some trousers and we'll go."

The top Natsu bought her was even worse than the jumper she had gotten yesterday, he fought the case that "It was pink and had flowers on and that's what she liked."

 _'It's so damn ugly and totally doesn't go with my camo trousers, this is a_ disaster.'

Purposely not looking at herself in the mirror of the cubicle, she slipped it on in a public toilet and stomped back out to Natsu who was grinning like an idiot, looking at her bundled up in his scarf and her new t-shirt he had bought for her

"Perfect Luce, I like you in my scarf." He blushed furiously and nervously glanced at his best friend to see her reaction to his compliment. Lucy smiled softly, holding the edge of the scarf with her hand.

"It's very comfy, thank you Natsu, are sure you don't want it back? I know how much it means to you."

He gaze was fixed on the floor, suddenly shy. "You mean a lot to me too, it makes sense that you wear it, at least for now. Look after it for me."

He looked up at the sky and smiled. "Let's go get Mira to cook us up some fire chicken." He marched off towards the guild hall leaving Lucy standing behind him, trying to calm her unsteady heart.

 _'What just happened?'_

* * *

Sitting opposite Natsu, she was starting to feel slightly sick, he ate his food like an absolute beast, bones and all. Averting her gaze, her eyes met the youngest Strauss siblings who was sitting at the bar, staring at them.

Suddenly remembering that she had shown up at Natsu's house this morning, Lucy thought she should probably let Natsu know just so he didn't get in trouble with her.

Having always thought that Natsu and Lisanna had a little bit of a thing going on between them but was never sure. Surely Lisanna showing up at his house this morning and walking straight in like she owned the place proved something.

Smiling sneakily she turned back to Natsu and gasped.

"Hey leave my food alone you pig, I'm hungry too, spit it out Natsu!" She shouted as she watched him shovel the food off her plate into his waiting mouth. "You snooze you lose." He mumbled through a mouthful of her chicken.

A small piece of chewed of food landed on her cheek, she flicked it off and tried her best to hold back a retch that was creeping up her throat.

"Natsu were you supposed to go out with Lisanna this morning? Are you two-" She wiggled her eyebrows "An item? Why didn't you tell me you old horndog. Maybe she should be wearing your scarf, she might get the wrong idea if she sees us cuddling on your sofa and then sees me wearing your scarf on the same day. She turned up this morning saying you two were supposed to go out to breakfast, maybe you should go apologize."

She laughed as she started to unwind the scarf to give to him so he could offer it to Lisanna as a peace offering but stopped halfway when Natsu chucked his food down and slammed his fists on the table.

"Don't you dare take that scarf off your neck."

They stared at each other for a while, Lucy's arms stopped midway through taking the material off of her neck but decided that with the look on his face that it would be best not to anger him further.

Once the scarf was returned to her body, snugly resting against her chest, Natsu visibly relaxed almost like he had been possessed a few seconds earlier, he started to eat again like nothing had happened.

"Yeah I think I was supposed to meet her but things change, I'll go apologize. I had to look after you first, halfway through the night you started shivering, I wouldn't be a very good host if I let my best friend suffer so I had to come share my body heat with you."

He smiled softly as he placed a piece of chicken he was about to eat back on the plate and slid it towards Lucy.

"I always sleep in when i'm in bed with you, it's like my body just doesn't want to get up because it already knows I'm with you, so why would I need to get up?"

Lucy gazed at the piece of chicken that he had passed to her, she chucked the offending piece of meat at the imposter who was now staring at her.

"Who the hell are you and where is Natsu Dragneel? Being all sweet and then giving me food? Did you bang your head or something? Oh Mavis what is going on." Lucy started ranting about all the strange thing that he'd been doing.

Pulling her hair gently to get her attention Natsu looked at her like she was a feral animal and spoke very slowly.

"Lucy, you've officially lost the plot. We'll get you help." Climbing on his chair, he stood on the table and cupped his hands around his mouth.

"Everyone Lucy has lost her marbles, we'll set up an intervention in the next few days." he declared but shut up when Lucy tried to pull his trousers down. Falling back into his seat he smiled.

"Okay now that that's all done, I'm going to go apologize to Lisanna and we'll go do something, have a think of anything you want to do. I promise I'm your Natsu, not an impostor."

She nodded with a grin and pushed him in her direction, Lisanna's eyes lit up at the sight of the pink haired man approaching her. Glancing away as to not see anything that she shouldn't, Lucy's eyes scanned the guild hall and landed on Gray who was being mauled by Juvia.

The celestial mage giggled as she managed to catch Gray's eye and nodded to the empty seat next to her. Now being given an imaginary escape rope he grasped it and ran for his life leaving Juvia sobbing on the floor, creating a small puddle full of her tears. Gray collapsed next to Lucy, grasping her shoulders he sighed.

"Thank you so much you are a lifesaver. I swear I was about to be swept away, she really is too much sometimes." Lucy laughed at her poor friend, his trousers were soaked from the water mage, she always seemed to melt around him, literally. Patting his moist thigh, Lucy smiled at the ice mage.

 _'At least he won't feel the cold so much.'_

"Juvia just really likes you Gray, give her a chance, you guys have a lot in common and your magic is very compatible." He looked over at Lucy and pulled a glum face. "I just don't see us working, at least not right now."

Changing the conversation he gently tugged on the scarf wrapped around her neck. "Are you sure you should be giving me relationship advice Luce? You and Natsu are so complicated that it gives me a headache."

 _'Me and Natsu?'_

"There's nothing going on between me and Natsu, we're best friends, just like me and you are best friends. Nobody thinks we're anything special."

"We could be." Gray muttered under his breath but was then pushed off his stool. As Gray hit the floor, Natsu stood over him, fists engulfed in flames, he looked about ready to commit murder. Gray and Natsu always got into fights but never like this.

"Stay the hell away from Lucy Ice prick" He pulled the blonde mage up from the table and marched her out of the guild. Flushed with embarrassment and anger she pulled her arm out of Natsu's grasp and stopped walking.

"What the hell was that? Have you lost your mind? Gray is your friend and you just attacked him for no reason." She shouted at Natsu's retreating form.

When he didn't respond, she grumpily followed him but still kept her distance, only because she didn't want to have to return to her tent and sleep outside but she needed a place to sleep. His sofa was weirdly comfy.

Natsu mumbled something quietly so Lucy purposely couldn't hear him which angered her even more. "Natsu speak up!" She exclaimed in frustration which made him turn around and capture her in a tight hug.

"He was going to ask you out, Gray's not good enough for you. Nobody is." he whispered into her neck. Too shocked to reply she just stood there and accepted his embrace.

"You don't have to look after me Natsu I'm a big girl, I can take care of myself." Lucy slowly pulled away from him but then gently took his hand in hers, she smiled as he rubbed his thumb over the back of her hand. "I like that you do look out for me though Natsu. Nobody's ever done that for me before, just tone it down a bit."

A cheeky smile appeared on his face as he stared down at the celestial mage "When have I ever been able to tone down anything I do?"


	3. Chapter 3

Lucy let out a long sigh as she sat with her legs in Natsu's pond/lake. It was a beautiful sunny day and she would have been a fool not to enjoy it.

After Natsu's little incident at the guild the previous day she had made him take her shopping for some more clothes plus other provisions to keep at his house while she was staying and to officially go and apologize to Gray for knocking him flat on his back in front of everyone at the guild.

It was very humiliating for the ice mage and Lucy wasn't going to let Natsu get away with it. He point blank refused to do the latter but after a few stern words Lucy made it happen.

Gray and Natsu both faced away from each other staring at the ground during his apology. It was extremely awkward for all involved.

It was good enough for Lucy to forgive her fiery friend though, those two would never fully see eye to eye but despite what they say about each other, she knew they were best friends.

"Luce if you keep wiggling your legs you're going to scare away all the fish." Natsu groaned as he leant backwards, abandoning his fishing rod on the bank. She pushed her sunglasses up into her hair to glance at her friend.

"Sweetheart you know there's no fish in here anyway, there's nothing for me to scare, maybe we could go buy some? Not to eat but to live in here, they could be like a pet, liven up the place up a bit."

Natsu's eyes lit up in excitement as he grinned, showing off his pearly white teeth. "Oh and we can get a frog, I shall name him Froggles." he declared proudly. Lucy giggled at his excellent choice of name.

"Aye sir, come on then, let's go to the pet store, it's only a short walk from here, fifteen minutes tops. Let's go get Froggles." She stood up and held her arm out for him to take.

The excitement was evident on his face and it was extremely contagious. The two popped on their shoes and made their way to Magnolia town.

* * *

"There's so many different ones to choose from, I can't decide Luce, help me." Natsu exclaimed, rushing around from enclosure to enclosure to pick a fish. He had already decided on who was going to be his Mr Froggles, it was a giant toad.

"Natsu you can't call a toad froggles, it'll have to be called toadles." he scoffed at this and immediately dismissed the name.

"I like that guy, he's fat so he reminds me of you." A swift thud on the head quickly ended that conversation as Lucy marched off to find her own fish, leaving Natsu behind, rubbing his aching skull.

"Stupid Natsu, I am not fat, you try keeping your body thin and toned when you're hormonal and just want to eat a mountain of ice cream, it's hard dammit." Lucy mumbled as she looked in all the fish tanks.

She stopped and walked backwards to one of them and saw a beautiful oranda goldfish, it had a long flowing fancy tail and soft peach colored scales that were reflecting the light.

"Excuse me sir can I have that fish right there? Princess Peach it is." She said to one of the salesman as she pointed to the fish she wanted.

* * *

An hour later, Natsu and Lucy were back at the pond and were ready to release their new pets into their new home. "Sir Igneel, Mr Froggles and Miss Princess Peach, this is your new home, I promise I won't allow Happy to eat you. Welcome to the family."

Natsu announced to their new additions and plopped them into the water. Lucy immediately started freaking out and went to grab Froggles to stop him from sinking into the deep water whereas their two fish swum off happily.

"Natsu you can't put him into the water, he lives on the land mostly! Do you know anything about Toads? They only go in the water for very short periods of time or for breeding purposes. He needs a little area on land for him to live, he'll burrow himself into the mud and hide for a bit probably."

Lucy scanned the edges of the lake for a suitable place for Natsu's new pet, finding the perfect spot, she rushed through the water as it was quicker and placed him in the muddy puddle amongst some reeds.

Froggles hopped forward under a piece of moist wood and settled in for the night. Wiping her hair off her head she smiled happy, satisfied that he was now settled in.

"Sorry Luce, is he okay?" Natsu said sadly as she walked back over to him, she placed her hand on his shoulder.

"Hey he's okay, he's taking a mud bath and looks pretty damn relaxed. Now let's let those three settle in, we'll come and check on them tomorrow."

Natsu looked up at her and smiled, lifting his hand up, he gently swiping his fingers over her cheek, revealing a smudge of muck that had splattered across her face.

"Froggles must've splashed you with some mud when you put him down. Does this mean that when you go back home when it's all sorted you'll still come visit me? Now that we've got our first pets?" He smiled hopefully.

 _'Why is he so damn cute.'_ Lucy though.

"Yes yes of course I'll still come visit, now I know where you live you won't be able to get rid of me." She watched her little peach swim around happily, Natsu's fish was a deep crimson goldfish, she'd never seen anything like it before.

 _'It's red scales must've reminded him of Igneel and that's why he named it after him.'_

"Shall we go eat some food? I bought some stuff earlier while you were taking a million years looking around the pet shop. I'll make my special spicy chili burgers and I got a bottle of fire whisky too." Lucy said as Natsu whooped and ran into the house.

* * *

Lucy was covered in all sorts of different spices as she experimented on which would add the biggest kick to the meal. Natsu was practically bouncing with excitement at the prospect of being served a handmade meal at his own house.

"Luce hurry up I'm starving here, i'm wasting away, practically dead." He shouted dramatically holding his stomach.

She rushed to plate the burger and just dumped a handful of chili flakes on top and squirted some Tabasco sauce. Finishing it off with a couple of slices of jalapeno peppers, her eyes were watering just looking the meal she had prepared for the fire dragon slayer, he had an appetite for the spicier things in life, that was for sure.

She chucked it onto a plate, poured a glass of fire whiskey for each of them and went to join her friend on the sofa. Natsu almost pounced on Lucy when she went to pass him his plate.

She instantly regretted her seating arrangements, holding her hand up to cover her face she hoped most of his food went into his mouth instead of being spat on her as he spoke his praises.

"This is amazing Luce you really outdid yourself, you're the bestest friend ever."

After half an hour of pure pain listening to Natsu munch his food she felt it safe to face him, napkin in hand. He had sauce all up his face and smeared on his neck.

 _'How in the hell.'_

Lucy wasted no time as she attacked him, cleaning his face roughly despite his protests, she somehow ended up straddling him.

"Lucy you need to get off me now please." he said gruffly but she ignored him, finding a speck of something sticky behind his ear.

"I swear to Mavis Natsu, that looked days old, do you wash yourself properly-" she stopped talking as she felt Natsu's nose run down her neck slowly as he inhaled deeply, she held back at shudder at the contact.

"Your smell mixed with all of those spices is divine, do you mind if I have a bite of you?" He murmured, his sharp canines coming out to play. When she felt something hard poke her inner thigh she leaped off him in shock.

"Whoa Natsu what are you doing?" She exclaimed, holding her hand against her now very sensitive neck. Her best friend was still sat on the sofa but his eyes were following her every step, like she was some sort of prey he was hunting.

 _'What the hell has happened to his eyes?'_

"Are you feeling okay? Do you need to come get some air, I can come outside with you?" She said trying to avoid eye contact with him.

As if he had only just started to hear her speaking, realization dawned on his face of what had just happened and a dark blush covered his cheeks.

"Oh no, Lucy. I'm um, going to go check on Froggles." He rushed to the front door but stopped.

"Sorry" he muttered, then he ran out and slammed it shut. Lucy didn't know how to feel or what to think.

 _'Natsu really wasn't himself just then, don't over think it Lucy, it never ends well. Just go find him and pretend it didn't happen.'_

Ignoring the feeling in her gut that told her not to go after him she pulled on her dressing down as a bit of added protection against the cold outside, she followed the path of slightly singed greenery.

Whenever his emotions were kicked into overdrive his magic did too, he still couldn't fully control it. As she walked into the opening to the pond she tried to get the image of Natsu's eyes out of her head, they looked almost reptilian, glowing a bright gold with a slit down the middle instead of his regular pupil.

 _'I'll have to ask Levy about this, she knows everything about everything.'_ She thought as she silently approached Natsu.

He was sat in the mud, with his feet in the water, stroking Froggle's warty back. Both Princess Peach and Igneel were swimming around his feet pecking at them, as if they knew he was hurting, or maybe they were just hungry.

She didn't say a word as she sat down in the dirt next to him and held his hand in hers.

She squeezed it gently trying to calm the anxious vibe that was coming off him and also to reassure him that she wasn't angry with him. When she looked at his face and saw that his eyes had returned to normal she let out a sigh of relief, whatever the hell that was that happened back there, it wasn't good.

But for now she would let it slip and try to comfort her best friend who was just as freaked out as she was.

Lucy leant over and pressed a kiss against his cheek and then sighed. "I think all those spices fried your brain. On the bright side Froggles seems to like you fussing him. We got a special little guy right there."

Natsu let a small smile slip onto his lips. "Yeah he is special, just like you." He turned to look into her big brown eyes. "You're so special to me Lucy, don't ever leave me, please."

Slightly caught off guard she didn't know what to say, so she just nodded. Afraid that she might cry if she tried to talk, Lucy stayed quiet and hugged his side tightly in the hope that it would keep him from falling apart.

* * *

Natsu and Lucy got into a comfortable routine in the next few days. Natsu goes to sleep in his hammock but sneaks onto the sofa with Lucy when she falls asleep with a different excuse each night.

"You were having a nightmare."

"You asked me to."

"You kept falling off, it was the only way to keep you from hurting yourself."

She rolled her eyes at his lame reasons, but secretly was happy to wake up in his arms every morning. She'd never admit it but she always slept better when he was there. Having no more weird episodes like he had a few nights previous Lucy soon forgot about it, never mentioning it to Levy.

Lucy got into the shower and moaned loudly at how great the warm water felt on her aching muscles, Natsu had somehow convinced her to work out with him and try to do the same amount that he did.

Needless to say she caved after about an hour. He did an insane amount of exercise, she realized after living with him for this small amount of time that he didn't do much else.

 _'Well duh how else would he of gotten such a ripped body. It really is something'_ She thought daydreaming about his perfectly chiseled abs.

The bathroom door swung open as Natsu charged in "Sorry Luce how's the shower going? Smells good in here. I gotta pee, I won't look I swear."

Lucy squealed in frustration, the guy who she was daydreaming about ruined her daydream, _'How does that work?'_

She huffed "Hurry up and if you even sneak a peek I will snap you like a twig Dragneel."

He laughed, she trusted him not to look in her direction but she made sure to keep all the essential bits smothered in bubbles and covered by her arms.

Once he was done he flushed the toilet and ran out giggling like a little girl as the shower went freezing cold.

"That's it, when I get out of here you are so dead." she yelled after him, chucking a bottle of body wash, aiming for the back of his stupid pink head.


	4. Chapter 4

The guild hall was buzzing with excitement when Lucy arrived, it was usually a ghost town this early in the morning, all the benches and tables were empty but a big crowd of people were gathered around something in the center of the guild.

 _'what the hell is going on.'_ she thought quizzically, scanning the guild for a friendly face, spotting two of them she hightailed it to bar.

Natsu had disappeared from the house when she had gotten out of the shower earlier on, good thing too considering the death threats she was shouting to him.

Walking over to Mira and Lisanna who were safely behind the counter, Lucy pointed to the huge cluster of people at the middle of the guild and mouthed _'wow'_ "What's happening now girls? Who's fighting today." She said loudly. Mira sighed deeply "It's Gajeel and Gray this time. I don't know what's going on but he doesn't sound happy." a loud growl came from the center of the hubbub "Stay the hell away from her."

Lisanna glanced at Lucy, with smile on her face she said. "Have you noticed any changes with Natsu recently? It only seems to be the dragon slayers of the guild getting overwhelmed with their hormones and lashing out."

Trying to keep a straight face, Lucy shook her head. "No, absolutely no changes noticed by me. He's still the same idiot I call my best friend, acting completely normal." Lisanna smirked "He likes you Lucy that's what has changed."

Shocked by such a ridiculous notion and somehow managing to choke on air she felt her windpipe closing up. A hand started to hit her back to encourage her to breathe.

"Cough it up." She spun her head around and there was the man in question. Natsu's hair was slightly more tousled than it usually was and his face had smears of mud on it. Not forgetting that he was almost completely naked, bar his black boxers with flames decorating them.

Mira's hand flew out to cover Lucy and Lisanna's eyes.

"Natsu Dragneel you should know better than to show up here in such a way, go cover yourself up." A crack appeared down the side of Mira's face indicating that she was verging on the point of transformation into her she devil form, which terrified everyone so Natsu instantly put his hands up in a form of surrender.

Mira dropped her hands back to her sides releasing the two girls from her grasp.

"Sorry Mira won't happen again. Had a slight altercation on the way here. Somehow caused me to lose all of my clothes and fall into a ditch. Who knows."

He shrugged his shoulders and held his grubby hand out to Lucy. "Fancy coming shopping with me? I lost the only nice outfit I own and considering you always look really pretty in your clothes all the time I figured you'd be the best person to find me some more nice ones."

He looked down at her with big dark eyes. A slit pupil flickered in the center of them, covering his regular one for less than a second, making Lucy think that she was going slightly insane.

It also reminded her that what had happened the other night wasn't a dream and was very real. There was a side to Natsu that was scary and unknown.

Glancing down at his mucky digits reaching for her, Lisanna's words echoed in her mind.

 _"He likes you Lucy, that's what's changed."_

 _'Surely not, let's find out.'_

The corners of her lips gently lifted up in a small smile, she looked over at Lisanna quickly and winked. "Let's go get your sexy on."

* * *

During three hours full of rigorous shopping, Natsu had not found a single outfit that he liked, much to Lucy's displeasure. Anything would look better than what he was wearing now. He had managed to squeeze into Lucy's old camo shorts she had bought last week and a random t-shirt of his that really didn't go with the color scheme he was rocking.

Sitting on a bench outside she looked at him, trying to muster a serious face "Okay Natsu no more playing around, you need some trousers and then we'll just call it a day alright? Just go into that shop there and buy some trousers that look like your old ones. You just weren't meant to have a different style. You look perfectly fine no matter what you wear."

He looked down at the floor pitifully "I just wanted to look nice for someone." This news perked her up but also caused a slight twinge in her heart.

 _'He likes someone?'_

"Since when did you have the hots for someone? I thought I was the only girl for you?" She said jokingly but was completely floored when he replied with "You are."

 _'I am not ready for this, go onto another subject Lucy quick, he doesn't know what he's saying. He's probably been eating those funky mushrooms again that were growing next to Froggle's house.'_

Letting out an awkward laugh she looked at the floor and then at the sky, anywhere but at her sweet little dragon slayer.

"I'll run in and grab your trousers, it'll probably be quicker if I do. Then we can go to the guild hall. Gildarts has come back today hasn't he? There's bound to be a party going on. Let's go let our hair down a bit."

Not waiting for a response, Lucy charged into the shop, not seeing the anguished look on the fire dragon slayer's face "Okay Luce." he mumbled dejectedly.

* * *

Getting dressed and ready with Natsu fluttering around her like a retarded butterfly was actually quite difficult. He wouldn't stop fawning over her. Slipping on her pink pumps she brushed imaginary dust off her dress. Natsu looked at her.

"Everybody's going to be so jealous, I'll be with the most beautiful girl there." Lucy let out a laugh.

"You're always with me dummy, have you been drinking already? You know you can't handle your booze. Come on." Pressing down on Natsu's shoulders, she forced him to sit down on the floor so she could style his hair.

Rubbing some wax into her hands she ran her fingers through his wild hair and was shocked at how soft it was. Considering he barely washed it, it was in great condition. Humming softly as she did it Natsu moaned at how good it felt and pressed his head against her waiting fingers.

Realizing she was giving him more of a head massage rather than making his hair look nice, Lucy shot out of the chair, much to Natsu's displeasure and bounced past him excitedly.

"Now we both look sexy, let's go have some fun." Walking out of the house she was overwhelmed by the sudden chill in the air.

 _'How did it get so damn cold?'_ she thought, about to turn around to grab a jacket she felt something warm wrap around her neck

"I gave you this as a present, you keep forgetting to wear it." She looked down and saw it was Natsu's scarf. He was right, ever since Gray had commented on it and indicated that her and Natsu were an item she was afraid to wear it incase anybody else got that same idea.

They were best friends, sure he was very attractive and she wasn't afraid to admit that. He didn't harbor any romantic feelings for her though. She wouldn't want to ruin what they had, he was one of a kind and she wouldn't take the risk of losing him over some feelings she may or may not have for him. She was too much of a coward.

"I promise I'll never take it off again sweetie." She said kissing his cheek.

 _'He is complimenting me a lot recently though and he's always touching me or looking at me, this is too confusing, shut up brain.'_

"Are you going to see Lisanna tonight?" She asked, trying to act nonchalant about the matter when in fact for some unknown reason she felt a bubble of anxiety settle in her chest as she waited for his response.

"Yeah maybe but I want to spend the night with you. You're my girl right? Can't leave you to those savages."

 _'His girl?'_ She liked the sound of that.

* * *

Looking up at the sky she could see Loke's constellation shining brightly, she might invite him out tonight if he's willing to behave himself, which he probably wouldn't knowing him, Lucy knew he would love to see all of his guild mates again.

When they exited the woods Lucy was startled to see that Gray and Lisanna were standing outside of the guild hall talking, it didn't look like a happy conversation either. Gray's hands were smoking from holding back his ice magic that was slowly seeping out of his skin, that was an easy indicator on how angry he was.

Running over to interrupt them she caught the tail end of their conversation "- Was mine first, she doesn't deserve him or anyone" Lisanna sounded very drunk already, slurring her words and swaying slightly on the spot.

Holding her hand on Gray's chest to stop him from doing something he'd regret, Lucy looked in his eyes and smiled.

"Hey handsome, rough night? Let's go inside and get some drinks. Natsu can you take Lisanna home please? She looks like she'd had enough for now and you're probably the best person to take her."

Natsu looked at Lisanna in disdain but smiled tightly. Taking her by the arm he walked the Strauss sibling off the guild's property and to her house.

Lucy could hear her purring with a seductive tone, running her hand up to hold Natsu's bicep. She found it very difficult to watch them leave, her heart was screaming at her to grab Natsu and never let him go but she had no choice. Gray needed her right now. and Lisanna needed Natsu.

She felt a cold hand rub soothing circles in between her shoulder blades, she hadn't realised her breathing had gotten very shallow.

Spinning around she grasped his hand and patted it.

"Let's go get me drunk. After the week I've had I deserve it." Gray nodded in agreement and led her inside. The guild hall was flowing with drinks and food. The atmosphere was amazing.

She stayed with Gray for the remainder of the night, sitting in the corner of the guild just having a general catch up, she forgot about Natsu all together. Getting slightly hot from all the alcohol she had consumed she removed Natsu's scarf and placed it in her bag, she may be drunk but part of her knew she needed to keep it safe.

Standing up unsteadily Gray reached down for Lucy to join him "May I have this dance?"

Giggling she allowed herself to be pulled onto the makeshift dance floor. Laxus was there with Mira, clearly being forced to dance by the white haired woman. Cana was there with Gildarts, we all knew who was making who have that dance.

She looked at Lucy, her eyes begging for Lucy to save her but she was dragged away by her father. Laughing as Gray spun her around she came face to face with a pink haired Gray when she did a full 360.

 _'That's strange. I could've swore Gray had black hair?'_

Pulling the man's cheeks she looked at him curiously "Did you dye your hair when I spun around, that's so strange, you look just like Natsu" She exclaimed, chuckling to herself.

"That's because I am Natsu." He said angrily, nudging a passed out Gray on the floor next to them with his booted foot.

"You said you'd never take it off again so why is my scarf stuffed in your bag like a dirty little secret?"


	5. Chapter 5

Frowning gently at Natsu's accusing tone, Lucy put her hand on the scarf, that was safely tucked away in her satchel, almost protectively.

He had given her this scarf as a gift, he trusted her with looking after his most prized possession and it sounded like he was about to take it away from her.

"You're not my dirty little secret Natsu, I just got a little bit too warm. There's so much body heat being produced in here." She laughed, feeling that the situation they were in was getting absolutely ridiculous.

Natsu scoffed loudly, obviously not pleased with her answer, he refused to meet her eyes, opting to look over her head at the bar "Yeah you did seem to be quite warm cosying up to an ice mage. Do you think I'm stupid? I'm done." He held his hands up in the air .

"Find somewhere else to stay tonight." Shouldering past the shocked blonde he marched through the crowd of drunken people, all who were completely unaware of the confrontation that just happened.

Natsu kicked his leg out at the door, a large splintered hole appeared as it flew open leaving the smell of burnt wood in her nostrils and the sight of his hunched back as he disappeared into the darkness, licks of flame trailing behind him.

In complete and utter shock the blonde felt her legs give out. _'Guess I'll be joining Gray on the floor tonight'_ but to her surprise was caught by a pair of strong arms.

"Careful blondie, you almost had a nasty fall. Had a bit too much to drink? Here, let me take you home." Laxus lifted her up and hoisted her into his arms, holding her bridal style. Lucy held his t-shirt in her hands as tears flowed from her eyes.

Feeling a wet patch on his front Laxus gently pulled her face away from his chest. "You're not drooling on me are you- Oh, what's happened?" Pressing her face even harder against his chest she sobbed quietly.

"Please can we leave, I don't want to be here anymore." Lucy didn't even really know Laxus that well but right now he was a knight in shining armor rescuing the drunken princess from the mean dragon who had kicked her out of their tower.

Laxus made no signs of moving so Lucy decided to take control, she reached around his waist and slapped his bum, hard. "Move, also I need a place to sleep tonight, can I bunk with you?" Laxus grumbled as they walked out of the burnt guild hall doors.

"Yeah sure you can, do you want me to tuck you into my bed and read you a bedtime story too? Maybe a glass of milk?" Laxus's voice dripped with sarcasm that Lucy didn't pick up on.

"Hey Laxus where you going, the party's just getting- oh I see you caught yourself a little bunny." A drunken voice exclaimed, followed by several others trailing after it, all giggling and shouting loudly. "Evergreen turn back around, Laxus is done for the night."

The lightning dragon slayer spun around with Lucy still firmly grasping his bum. "No no we're taking the party back to mine, fancy coming Bix? Grab freed, Ever and a couple of other people if you want but don't take the piss." Fixing Bickslow with a stare, Laxus raised his eyebrow. "You know what I mean don't you."

Bickslow stuck his tongue out cheekily showing off his guild emblem. "Yeah yeah I understand, don't worry. I'll grab a couple of other people and that's it, ye of little faith. Want to wait and we'll walk over with you?"

Laxus looked down at Lucy, as if to ask her if she minded waiting. Shaking her head from side to side she smiled lazily, almost asleep anyway. Looking back at his best friend, Laxus nodded.

"We'll wait out here for you, don't be long."

His teammate returned back into the guild, making a loud announcement that the party was being taken back to Laxus's and all the people who were able to, follow him. The lightening dragon slayer sighed loudly "Every time." he mumbled to himself.

Clearly his best friend was a bit of a party animal and loved to get everyone involved. A huge group of drunken Fairy Tail mages flooded out of the guild hall, all being led by the seith mage who had Ever and Laki on his shoulders, bouncing slightly as Bickslow plodded along, his babies floating around him.

Lucy shuffled slightly in Laxus's arms, her cheek smushed against his bicep. The blonde man smiled softly as he looked at the girl in his arms.

"Stop staring at me sparky." she mumbled as she peeked up at him, narrowing one large brown eye at him. Amused at her feistyness, he dropped her onto her feet, much to her displeasure and walked off leaving her on the path that led to Natsu's cabin.

"What the hell Laxus, why did you drop me? I thought you were supposed to be big and strong and manly." She flexed her arms trying to mimic his overly large muscles on his arms. Lucy looked around at her surroundings, her eyes widening with realization at where Laxus was trying to make her go.

"No you said you were taking me to your house, Natsu kicked me out okay, don't palm me off on him, I'll have to sleep in my tent." Lucy started muttering to herself, pacing across the pathway, back and forth in front of Laxus.

Confused at her words he tried to de-riddle what she had said. "So you were staying at Natsu's but you were also staying in a tent but he kicked you out?"

Lucy started stumbling away from him into the forest. "Help me move my tent next to Mr Froggles please Laxus, he'll protect me."

"Who the hell is Mr Froggles? Look I'll take you to Natsu's house and he'll put you to bed. You won't be getting any sleep with what's going on at my house, I'm just looking out for you Luce. Hey, celestial wizards are rare nowadays, can't be losing you now can we Heartfilia."

She smiled at his words, calming down slightly and returning to his side. "Thanks Laxus. Okay but Natsu really won't be happy to see me."

"I doubt Natsu will ever be unhappy to see you." Lucy pointed excitedly at the mud mound as they walked past the edge of the pond near Natsu's property, shouting excitedly about Mr Froggles.

She knelt on the floor in the mud, getting her legs covered in it. She wasn't phased at all, not even when she leant down to grab something and it kicked mud onto her chest. Lifting, what he thought was a clump of mud, into the air she held it in front of Laxus's face, smiling proudly.

"This is Mr F, he's cool huh? Me and Natsu picked him out. He's our first official pet. We also got two fish but they're out swimming free somewhere."

Laxus was not amused with the ugly Toad that was being held in front of his face by the mucky celestial mage. Pushing her small hands towards the floor he pulled her fingers off the amphibian, much to Froggle's pleasure and he jumped back into his mud palace, splashing it all over Laxus.

Wiping the slimy substance from his face he flicked it back onto the floor.

"Great that was...That was great. Look." He pointed to Natsu's window. "I think I can see a light on, Natsu hadn't gone to sleep yet. I hope that's his lamp shining and not him setting the place on fire."

Lucy suddenly had an idea "Quick." She yanked Natsu's scarf out of her satchel, waving it around wildly "Wrap this around my neck, Natsu will be so mad if I'm not wearing it."

Not question it Laxus wrapped the soft piece of material around the celestial mage's slender neck, trying to keep it from touching any mud, he tied it up tightly. "Okay now you're ready missy let's go, no more excuses."

Lucy had a bad feeling about this, she just knew that going up there and into the house was a bad idea but before her drunken mind could utter any words they had reached the front door and Laxus was opening it.

Lucy's eyes fixed on a bare backside staring at her. Laxus started stumbling over his words at the sight before him, whereas Lucy felt like she'd been stabbed through the heart. Natsu was grunting loudly as he was thrusting hard into a girl bent over his sofa, completely unaware that he now had visitors.

Flicking the light switch, Lucy wobbled forwards on shaky legs, she needed to see who it was underneath Natsu's body. Who was in the place where she wanted to be, where she should be.

 _'Look's like I'm not his girl after all.'_

The female beneath him had long blonde hair, her facial structure was very similar to Lucy's, the resemblance was striking. But when the woman opened her eyes they were blue, not brown like Lucy's were.

Natsu grumbled in protest when the girl's eyes were revealed. "No close your eyes, it's not right. You don't look right anymore." He roughly pulled himself out of her and pushed her away.

"What the hell is your problem?" She yelled, then turned her face to see Laxus and Lucy standing there looking at her. She stood up and huffed. "I'm not a fan of three on one, bye." She pulled down her dress and sauntered out of the cottage. Lucy was too shocked to react.

"Natsu what the fuck, who was that? What just happened. I thought you and Lucy-"

"That was Lucy, or it was until she opened her stupid fucking eyes." Natsu had his eyes closed as lay down on the sofa, he pulled up his boxers but remained naked everywhere else.

He reached blindly at the table and grabbed his fire whisky, taking a long sip and dropping the empty bottle on the floor.

"Luce forget it, I'm sorry I made you come here, let's go back to my house, you can stay with me until we figure this out." Laxus said , turning to leave.

Natsu's eyes popped open at the indication that Lucy was there.

"Luce are you here? I thought I could smell you." He stood up, slurring his speech. "I missed you Luce."

This wasn't how Natsu acted, could this something to do with how the dragon slayers had been acting recently? Or was she just trying to make up some excuses for what he had done? She didn't understand anything anymore.

She turned around to Laxus and tried to muster as genuine a smile as she could and probably failed miserably.

"I can handle it from here, do you have a lacrima?" He nodded, unsure as to where this was going "If anything goes wrong I'll call you on your lacrima. Go enjoy your party, I'll be fine I promise."

Laxus fixed Natsu with a stare."If you do anything to her I'll be over here faster than lightening, I'll be keeping my ears out. Stay safe Luce, make sure you do call me before you go to bed or I'll be back."

Patting her on her shoulder gently as he walked past he closed the door to the cabin which left Natsu and her alone and in silence. She really didn't know what to say to him so she let her actions do the talking.

Shocking Natsu and slightly shocking herself she slapped the dragon slayer across the face then proceeded to pull him into a kiss. _'What the hell am I doing, this is Natsu.'_

Yanking herself back before Natsu had even got a chance to taste her properly he let out a low growl, all of a sudden sounding completely sober.

"Don't tease me Lucy, it has been a very long night and I'm not in the mood for games."

"Burn that sofa right now." She demanded, completely ignoring what her stupid body had just made her do.

 _'No I didn't just kiss him, definitely not. He's blind drunk, he won't remember, it didn't happen.'_

Natsu looked at her, eyes glazed from all the alcohol he had consumed "Why do you want me to-oh."

His hand lit up as he flicked a ball of flame at the offending piece of furniture, it roared to life.

Lucy squealed as the flames grew higher and higher, threatening to burn away the ceiling and everything else in the room, including her. Running over to the sink she hurried to fill it with water to call out Aquarius.

"Don't worry Luce I'll just eat them." Natsu said as he hiccuped loudly.

"You idiot, you created that, you can't eat your own flames." She pulled out her keys and pressed her water bearer key into the sink, summoning her most powerful but also most evil spirit.

Aquarius came through her gate and released a huge wave of water that hit Lucy and sent her barreling towards Natsu and the flaming sofa.

Screaming she shut her eyes and hoped for the best. Landing on something soft she heard her spirit laugh. "You're welcome." Aquarius said smugly as she disappeared back to the spirit realm.

Pressing herself off Natsu's chest she groaned loudly. "This night sucks, I hate you Natsu."

Natsu mumbled sleepily, holding Lucy's arm against his face "Love you Luce."

 _'Why does everyone believe that except me.'_


	6. Chapter 6

Lucy hadn't calmed down at all. Natsu had passed out on her and nothing she did woke him up so she rolled him off her onto the floor and took his hammock as her own. She had slept on the whole mess that had happened, well not slept but lay down with her eyes open overthinking everything.

Successfully coming to the conclusion that she had a crush on Natsu and he most definitely had a crush on her. _'Bit late to the party aren't I.'_ she thought sarcastically.

Her being constantly around him wasn't doing them any good. What was supposed to be a fun little adventure for them both had almost ruined their friendship, enough was enough.

She had rang Laxus earlier that morning, after waiting for several minutes he answered, appearing in the screen of the lacrima looking slightly disoriented but still fully conscious, his face lit up when he saw who was staring at him through the screen

"Luce you're okay." He exclaimed happily causing a loud cheer to come from the rest of the people standing behind him. "I was worried, can't have my friend being bullied by that idiot Natsu. Is it all sorted?"

Lucy pulled a face at him. "Well, not really. I was wondering if I could still take you up on that offer of bunking with you? I decided I can't stay here after all, at least not until we both sort our heads out."

Laxus nodded enthusiastically "Yeah yeah okay I'll set up a guest room for you and-"

"No I'm not coming right now, it's 5am Laxus. I'll come over later in the day. I need to have a talk with Natsu anyway, he passed out last night. Send me some directions and I'll see you tonight."

She disconnected the lacrima as anger flooded her body at the memories of last night. She knew that even though she was not in a relationship with Natsu and had no excuse to be feeling such betrayal and jealousy over what she had witnessed, she couldn't help it. The feelings were there.

They had such a special relationship, people did always assume they were a couple. It was just second nature to act like it. She felt like a fool for getting so upset, did she really have any right to? He wasn't officially hers, they weren't exclusive.

 _'He thought she was you. He wanted it to be you, idiot. You need to tell him how you feel.'_

Natsu walked into the room behind her, but stopped short when he saw her clothes all over the floor.

"Why are you packing Luce? Last night is such a blur, ugh. I'm going to admit this now I had a dream that we had sex." His cheeks flamed as he spoke. "Your eyes were blue, not brown though."

He held his hands against his head, squeezing tightly as if trying to get the memories to come out by force. "Man I'm never drinking again, I'm sorry I violated you in my dream."

"That wasn't me Natsu and that wasn't a dream. That was some slut you picked up somewhere in Magnolia. Mavis only knows where. Me and Laxus walked in on you giving her your love stick, it was disgusting. Right where I sleep as well. What if I hadn't come in when I did and I slept on there" She internally retched at the thought of it, so unhygienic.

Natsu's face turned white as a sheet, almost unbelieving what he was being told "I, I had sex with someone else? Is that why the sofa's gone?"

He looked at the floor, clenching his jaw tightly as he fought to hold back tears, deep down, he knew that it wasn't a dream he was remembering. Natsu continued speaking, voice cracking slightly.

"Something's been happening to me recently and it's scaring me but I didn't tell you anything because I didn't want to scare you too and make you leave. You're the only thing keeping me sane at the moment because that's what it feels like. It feels like I'm losing my mind to the beast that's inside me, my dragon is trying to claw his way out. I don't want to lose who I am."

Lucy hated herself for always being so blind at his obvious advances, this was partly her fault, well almost all her fault. Something crazy had been going on in his body for a while now, the signs were clear.

Levy had spoken to Lucy before about how dragon slayers get some seriously strong dragon instincts that pretty much take over their body and then it's out of the person's control, they aren't the one running the show anymore. They survive purely on instincts.

The one instinct they run on is finding their mate.

Thinking back to the descriptions of Gajeel when he had gone through it, she hated to say it but it sounded very similar to what Natsu had been doing.

What kind of person would she be if she left her best friend alone at a time like this? She had to swallow her pride and do the right thing, no matter how much it pained her to do so, she had to look after him.

 _'How could I be such an idiot, if I had done something sooner with him none of this would have happened.'_

"Natsu look this isn't going to go away overnight. I'm really hurt. I thought, I thought me and you were something or at least going to be something but-"

"We still can be Luce." Natsu interrupted, sounding almost excited, his eyes shining with fresh tears.

"I've wanted to be with you for so long, you have no idea. I thought you didn't like me like that and our friendship just means so much to me that, well I don't know. I didn't want to pressure you into anything. I can't ever imagine myself even looking at another girl, let alone." He shuddered at the thought "Having sex with her. You're all I think about and all I see.""

Lucy walked close up to his face to inspect his eyes, they had gone reptilian again. At least now she knew she wasn't imagining things. "Natsu your eyes, have you ever seen them like this before?" She quickly grabbed a mirror out of her pocket to show him his reflection.

He yelped in surprise at what was staring back at him. He pulled his eyelid up and poked the side of his eye "What the hell are they? Those aren't my eyes. I can see perfectly fine though. This is so strange." He ran his finger around his eye lid gently.

"They remind me of Igneel, This was how his looked, almost identical really."

Lucy tried to keep up with his ramblings but failed miserably.

"Look Natsu we can forget about last night for now, there's clearly bigger things to be concerned about than what happened. Something might be seriously wrong with you. Let's go see Porlyusica now and figure out what the hell happened last night." He smiled brightly at this statement but it was dulled instantly when he was kicked in the gut

"I'm still angry at you right now though Natsu. If this were reversed you'd be furious wouldn't you?" Natsu frowned, clearly disturbed at the thought of him walking in on Lucy having sex with some random guy.

"Just please try to understand. When you see someone who you thought was finally beginning to come into your life in the right way having sex with someone else, your whole world just comes falling down on top of you."

She turned her face away from Natsu as tears started falling down her cheeks. _'I'm so pathetic, why can't I just be strong.'_

"You are strong" Natsu said, Lucy froze in shock. Did he just?

"Why did you say I was strong Natsu?" She said slowly, wiping the tears off her face and looking at the dragon slayer.

"You said you weren't strong, you are strong. You have to be super strong to stay best friends with me for this long. I'm not the easiest person to get along with."

"Natsu." Lucy said, her voice shaking as she started to freak out.

"I thought that, inside my head, no words left my lips"

He shrugged his shoulders as if it was no big deal.

"That's pretty cool huh. That probably means you're my mate. It's not like I didn't know that already though."

Natsu smacked his hand over his mouth, realizing what he had just announced.

Lucy screeched to an abrupt stop, trying to fight off this impending panic attack that was threatening to take over at any second.

"I'm your what? How long have you known this? Please tell me it hasn't been long. Don't dragon slayers mate for life? Oh no." She knelt down and placed her head in between her legs, taking slow deep breaths.

 _'I'm his mate? I can't, that's crazy.'_

"Gajeel told me that sometimes telekinesis can form between a dragon and their mate, when they get close to bonding. Once a dragon slayer reaches sexual maturity they get hints as to who their mate is. Be it dreams of how they look or where you will meet them. I actually had a dream that I would meet you in Hargeon, it happened months before we crossed paths. I usually forget everything but I couldn't forget the beautiful girl from my dream."

A small smile appeared on his face.

"You grinned at me and treated me to some food, it all happened exactly the same, I fell in love with you after our first mission. You were such an idiot, it was adorable. But I didn't realize these _urges_ and changes would happen, I would never hurt you intentionally Lucy, I promise I will make this up to you."

Placing his hand on the blondes shaking shoulder he sighed softly "Let's go see the old hag and see if she can fix me then maybe we can get down to fixing us."

Glancing up at Natsu, Lucy's smile trembled slightly as everything that had happened over the past twenty four hours full took effect on her.

"I'd like that Natsu." He wrapped his arms around her tightly as she sobbed into his neck, muttering words of love but mostly hate.

"Yeah I love hate you too Lucy Heartfilia."

* * *

"You're a dragon slayer so you get dragon mannerisms, stop being a child and grow up. Yes sometimes when you feel a huge surge of a certain powerful feeling the dragon will take control until it is appeased." Porlyusica shoved a handful of vials into Natsu and Lucy's open hands.

"You, girl, smother this over yourself when you bathe, it should make the dragon dislike your smell, ergo it will leave you alone."

She turned around and chucked a large bottle full of a green liquid at the pink haired dragon slayer "You, Natsu, will have to have a full shot of this everyday, now get out of my house brats."

Being practically shoved out of the healers weird little house, the two mages looked at each other and then at all the weird and wonderful remedies they had been given.

"Right then, let's get started and see which ones work."


	7. Chapter 7

Lucy rubbed her hand in soothing circles on Natsu's back, it seemed to calm him down a bit as his body convulsed, forcibly emptying his stomach of the contents of one of the vials Porlyusica had given them to try.

Natsu pressed his forehead against the cool surface of the toilet bowl, taking quick shallow breaths, his face was covered in a slick coat of sweat.

Altogether they had tried six different potions and all of them had made Natsu severely ill and then he would eventually vomit them back up. Lucy wanted to call it a day after the second attempt but Natsu insisted that they should try them all in one go, the sooner they fixed his problem, the better.

When Lucy had left the night before to stay at Laxus's house, the last thing she expected was for Natsu to come barging in three hours later, his eyes had returned back to the slits that he had previously compared to Igneel's and crimson scales had started to appear on his temples, he simply growled "Mine" at Laxus, threw Lucy over his shoulder and took her back to his cottage, kicking and screaming.

When they got back he had placed her onto something soft, sensing that Lucy had been returned back to Natsu's house the beast inside withdrew, leaving a puzzled Natsu in it's wake.

He was speechless when he saw Lucy was spread over the top of a brand new bed, with fluffy pillows and a huge throw over it that had appeared in his living room somehow.

"When did you get in here Luce?" Natsu said, scratching his head in confusion "The bed was supposed to be a surprise for when you got back from the lightening head's place. Did something happen?"

 _'This is going to be harder than I imagined.'_ Lucy thought as she accepted that there was no escaping this stubborn, pink haired fool and his possessive alter ego.

It turned out that Natsu had rang a bed and mattress shop the night previous and got them to deliver it ASAP, thinking that it would be a good surprise for when Lucy returned the following day. He knew that she would be missing her bed, so he got it her as a gift, as a way of apologizing for everything that had happened.

Lucy had to admit, it did make staying with Natsu a little bit more appealing, considering her previous makeshift bed (Natsu's beat up old sofa) had been burnt to a crisp, which she was thankful for.

"If there's one thing I hate, it's being sick. Why can't I catch a break. I just want to be with-" His eyes widened as he lifted his head back up and released another load of vomit. Lucy felt awful for her friend, nothing was worth the stress he was putting his body through.

If she could see herself forgiving someone in the future she would do it straight away, there was no point whatsoever putting herself through the strain of staying angry at them, especially Natsu.

She loved this man too much to intentionally cause him pain, yet here she was making him try all of these ridiculous drinks to try and stop what nature intended his body to do. It wasn't right.

"Natsu this is the last one we're doing, I'm so sorry, look, let me make you your favorite meal, anything you want you can have. We'll find another way, or we'll make do, anything but this."

The pink haired slayer lifted his head up, his eyes were glazed over and incredibly blood-shot, despite how ill he felt he still put on a brave face for her and smiled widely.

"Luce I'll do whatever it takes to make sure you don't leave me, this is nothing, I can do this, I promise."

"No, enough is enough Natsu." Lucy said sternly. "Look at yourself, I can't let this continue. Come on, there can't possibly be anything left in your stomach, let's get you into bed."

The dragon slayer grumbled loudly but didn't protest as Lucy gently pulled him to his feet, her knees buckled as he almost collapsed on her.

"Whoa Natsu steady, just stay conscious a little longer, we need to get some fluid in you, you're going to be super dehydrated, then we'll get you tucked into bed."

Shuffling along with Natsu leant against her back was almost comical, what wasn't comical was how sick he looked. Finally reaching the bed, she swung him around and landed him perfectly in position. Taking a good look at him, she was glad she had decided to stop all of this nonsense.

No man would put themselves through such torture if they didn't truly want to change. Lucy believed every word Natsu said because yes, he was an idiot and a hot head but he was not a liar.

 _'Love you Luce'_

Natsu's voice echo'd in her head, thoroughly creeping her out until she remembered the whole telepathy mate thing. That wasn't something she was going to get used to anytime soon. Having someone in your head was a major invasion of privacy.

Even though it wasn't something that could be helped, it was still something she wasn't overly fond of.

 _'Butt out Pinkie, goodnight'_

"Always the charmer Luce." Natsu mumbled, a sleepy smile on his face as soft snores started to leave his mouth.

 _'Out like a light, now I can get some stuff done.'_ Lucy thought as she rubbed her hands together, ready to get things started.

Talking to another dragon slayer was first priority. Lucy's first idea was to ask Laxus as he was the most approachable, but she wasn't sure if him being a second generation dragon slayer meant that his abilities would be the same as Natsu's, would they still get the dragon instincts or would they be able to dodge that bullet?

Then she thought about Gajeel but he scared her sometimes. It was hard to know if he was going to be in a good mood or a bad mood. She'd rather just not find out at all.

A secret that she had never told a soul was that she had a pen pal from another guild, a friendship that formed in the oddest of circumstances. A confidant of sorts, someone who was very similar to her in the sense that they understood how it felt to be raised in the upper class life and how awful it was.

If anybody could help her it could be him. She kept their friendship a secret because her friends were nosy and ruined an awful lot of things, she didn't want this to be one of them.

Making sure that Natsu was definitely asleep she flicked him on the end of his nose. Nope, nothing. She attempted to whisper to him telepathically.

 _'Erza's outside.'_ A slight snort left his nose as he rolled over, batting his hand out at an invisible foe, but he nevertheless was still unconscious.

Tip toeing out of the room she walked calmly to Natsu's pond and sat on the boardwalk section, dangling her legs over the end, watching hers and Natsu's fish dance below her feet. Lucy removed her lacrima from her pocket and attempted to contact her friend. A man appeared in the glass, he grinned widely when he saw who was calling him.

"Lucy dear how are you?" a soft voice said. "What can I help you with on this fine evening?"

Lucy smirked "Hello Rufus, what can you help me with indeed, what's your knowledge on dragon slayers like?"

* * *

"I need to what?" Natsu exclaimed loudly, trying to hide the blush that was creeping onto his face. Lucy sat on the bed next to him, completely calm and composed.

She sighed softly and frowned. "You have to kiss me properly you idiot. My source says that the telepathy is a way of our bodies telling us we need to seal the deal. As we're already close to bonding, like Gajeel said, it needs us to complete this. Of course I'm not going to have sex with you but he." She cleared her throat, trying to hide the fact that it was a male she had just referred to.

" _ **They**_ said that anything from kissing will get rid of the telepathy and I would like that very much."

Natsu was boggled "But we already kissed didn't we?" The blonde mage huffed in annoyance, clearly getting impatient.

"That wasn't a kiss, that was nothing. It has to be the real thing, full of emotion. Can you do that for me Natsu? We need to figure this out. Just one kiss, that's all I'm asking for. Then if we aren't actually mates then things can go back to how they used to be. My friend said that if we are meant to be together then you'll know, it's like it'll be written in big neon signs in your brain."

Natsu looked at her skeptically. "I don't want things to go back to how they used to be. I like where they're heading but if this will prove to you that you're my mate then okay."

Surprised at his boldness, Lucy gasped as he rolled on top of her body, successfully pinning her to the bed. Natsu placed his hand on the side of Lucy's face, his lips hovered over hers, millimeters from touching. Her heart threatened to beat right out of her chest.

 _'Why is he taking so damn long.'_ Lucy groaned internally at how Natsu was torturing her. Almost as if he wanted to see her squirm. She was putty in his hands and he hadn't even done anything yet.

"You're even more beautiful when you're like this." He whispered as his lips finally made contact with hers. They fit together perfectly, like two pieces of the same puzzle.

A loud rumble sounded from Natsu's chest when Lucy started to respond to his movements. Each kiss got more and more intense until Natsu hastily pulled away, gasping for breath.

Lucy stared at his face, trying to understand what had just happened. She held her hand against her lips which were tingling from their kiss.

"Well, anything spectacular happen in your head?"

Being shoved into the mattress once again she was ashamed at how excited she got at Natsu's erratic behavior but let out a loud scream when his teeth pierced her neck, a warm sensation shot down into her shoulder.

 _'Well shit.'_ Lucy thought as she looked down at her best friend's face, his mouth was smeared with her blood and dragon scales were starting to form on his forehead.

 _'Definitely not Natsu.'_

"Oh yeah." Natsu mumbled as he returned down to her injured neck. "It was spectacular alright."


	8. Chapter 8

_'He isn't stopping, why isn't he stopping.'_ Lucy thought as her body started to tremble. Natsu's mouth was still clamped onto her flesh, she could feel her magic energy starting to wane.

Whatever Natsu was doing, it wasn't just having a nibble. He was sucking her dry, intentionally or not, it hurt. A surge of heat spread from the wound on her neck, throughout her body, as if Natsu's fire magic were coursing through her veins.

The unstable dragon slayer unattached himself from Lucy, when he raised his head so that he were face to face with her she visibly blanched at the sight. All of his features were similar to how he looked from his previous transformations, except for one thing.

His canines were now seriously elongated this time and were protruding from his parted lips and they were stained with Lucy's blood. Droplets fell from the tips and landed onto Lucy's face, hitting her skin with a gentle tap and making her insides crawl.

Natsu's eyes slowly cracked open at the sound and settled on the dots of crimson liquid that had dropped onto her face, he bent down and ran his tongue along her skin, savoring every drop of his mate's sweet taste.

Lucy tried not to move, scared that his razor sharp teeth would slice open even more of her skin.

She wasn't really a huge fan of wanting a huge scar on her face. Regular Natsu would probably think it was badass but she did not. Staying still and letting this part of him do whatever he wanted was the best thing to do, the safest thing.

Lucy knew what she was getting into with this, none of this was Natsu's fault. She signed up for this and she was going to see it to the end.

His abnormal eyes met her fearful wide ones and squinted at her neck, letting a wide grin appear on his blood stained lips when he was pleased with what he saw.

"You are mine now. No running." His voice was gruff and guttural sounding, nothing like his usual tone. His voice was closer to Gajeel's and not that she'd ever admit this to anyone, especially Levy but his voice was extremely attractive. She didn't mind this change at all.

"W-what did you do to me Natsu?" She stammered out. Still being pinned down to the bed made this encounter extremely awkward as despite being mauled by a feral dragon slayer, she was still extremely aware of how tightly her and Natsu's bodies were pressed against each other. She could feel every single part of him, absolutely everything. It was annoying how perfect it felt.

She shifted ever so slightly but a hiss left Natsu's mouth at the friction. "Don't move. I did what was necessary. Are you in pain?"

He nuzzled her damaged neck, mumbling "I love you." and went to work on cleaning the wound, his wet tongue caressed the laceration.

Despite how gross it was to feel Natsu's soft tongue clean her, it did actually take away the pain. She moaned at the sweet relief and let the tension in her neck release as her head fell back against the bed.

Lucy brought her hand up to hold the back of Natsu's head, threading her fingers through his silky hair. He growled loudly, placing kisses onto her bare shoulder, slowly moving lower and lower until he was on the swell of her breast.

His canine sunk into the soft tissue, Lucy breathed in sharply at the acute pain and then yanked his head away roughly. Pressing a kiss carefully on his mouth, trying not to puncture her lips on his fangs, she mumbled against his lips. "Behave my naughty dragon."

"Need you." Natsu panted out, as if not being able to almost devour her was almost painful for him. Sweat beaded on his forehead as he whimpered, clearly having an internal battle with himself.

Before she could respond to him she was suddenly overtaken with a intense pain in her body as she started to convulse violently in Natsu's arms.

"I don't understand. He said it was all fine, my dragon said you were the one and I should mark you. Everything else has worked, I can see our bond."

Natsu now looked completely normal, all of his dragonoid features had been tucked back under the surface of his skin. His eyes widened as he looked down at her, now deathly still form. "Luce hey no stay with me, you're going to be fine. Just keep your eyes open."

* * *

 _'Why can't I move.'_

Lucy could barely keep her eyes open as she watched Natsu pick her up and run out of his cottage, obviously heading for the guild. Porlyusica was quite clear that they weren't welcome there again for a long time, so his train thought was obvious, Wendy.

If their favorite little dragon slayer was there she might be able to fix whatever the hell was wrong with her.

Natsu had said that they had bonded, was that what she had felt earlier? That scorching hot feeling deep inside of her, burning her insides.

She just hurt all over. Natsu placed a kiss on her head which gave her some serious fluttering fairies in her stomach.

"We'll sort this Luce. You're going to be fine. I love you so much, I really do. I'm so sorry, I did this to you."

Lucy wished she was able to speak, she didn't blame him for this. It wasn't his fault and she wanted to say that she loved him too.

 _'If this is the end, I'll never be able to say I love you again, how awfully tragic.'_

Seeing the guild up ahead, Natsu started screaming for help, for anybody to come outside to his aid. A horde of Fairy Tail mages came barreling out of the guild, guns blazing but all froze when they saw Natsu holding a comatose Lucy.

Gray and Erza came out from the group, Erza took Lucy out of the dragon slayers shaking arms. "We'll take her to Wendy, tell us all the details after she's stable."

Erza glanced down at her neck and nodded her affirmation. "As I suspected, you mated with her." She pointed at Gray and supported Lucy's body against her with one arm. "Gray, go grab me Levy and Wendy. They'll both be at Fairy Hills, tell them it's urgent. I'll get Lucy settled in the infirmary."

Gray nodded and ran off in the direction of the girls apartment building, not wasting any time. Black dots were starting to appear at the edge of Lucy's vision as she was carried past all of her fellow guild mates, up the stairs and into the infirmary wing.

Since they were mages and were always getting into trouble, Fairy Tail having their own hospital of sorts just made sense. If things were really serious, Porlyusica would come out and see them but she was especially antisocial recently.

Erza placed Lucy onto the nearest bed and placed a soft blanket over her "Oh Lucy, I knew this was going to happen but I wish you could've given me some indication you and Natsu had finally figured things out."

 _'I would've if I knew Erza.'_

* * *

"Luce? Hey Lucy, wake up sleepy head. I brought you a sandwich." Lucy batted away whoever was trying to interrupt her slumber.

 _'Hey wait a sec I can move.'_

Lucy peeled her eyes open and shrieked at who was above her, almost headbutting the person's viser. "Bickslow what are you doing in here? Where's Natsu?"

Bickslow laughed and hung his tongue out of his mouth. "Hey cosplayer, Laxus posted me here for the hour to make sure Natsu doesn't try and kidnap you again. Everyone has a shift. You're lucky you woke up with me being here, next shift is Elfman's."

"Natsu, try to kidnap me? Why would he do that?" Lucy couldn't make sense of what Bickslow was saying. "Natsu's downstairs locked in the cellar, after he tried to grab you. Spouting about how you were his and none of us were allowed near you, blah blah blah. Guy's lost it."

"Can you get Laxus for me? I need to talk to him. Like, right now." Lucy clenched her jaw in anger, she needed to see Natsu. She didn't know why but she felt like it was the most important thing in the world, nothing else mattered.

Bickslow slipped out of the door and a minute later Laxus's giant frame was standing before her. Sliding out of the bed, she stood before him and put her hands on her hips "I demand to be taken to Natsu right now Laxus."

He shook his head and laughed "No can do Blondie, he's pretty unstable right now. With the mating still so fresh it wouldn't be safe for y-"

"I need to see him Laxus, what don't you understand about that." Lucy exclaimed, shoving past him she ran out of the door and down the stairs, shocked faces stared at her as she streaked past them, aiming for the cellar door.

She could feel she was getting closer to him, her heart started to beat hard in her chest at the prospect of seeing Natsu. She was so excited.

Giving a swift Lucy kick at the door, she flew down the steps and landed at the bottom where she could see Natsu, he was being contained in a makeshift cage. His eyes locked onto Lucy's form and he reached out through the bars for her. "Hey Luce, I missed you."


	9. Chapter 9

Lucy looked around the darkened cellar, her eyes were struggling to focus on anything except the flaming dragon slayer in the cage next to her slumped body. Natsu was pacing the length of his makeshift prison like a wild animal.

With each passing minute, Lucy could feel his rage growing and his mind become more and more erratic, it was terrifying not knowing what was going to happen, everything was up in the air at the moment. She couldn't think clearly, all she knew was that this shouldn't be happening. They should be at home, playing by Natsu's pond, not trapped here.

"Luce if I don't get let out of this thing soon, I'm going to completely lose myself. He's whispering to me, constantly inside my head." He looked down at the blonde celestial mage, his eyes held a tint of madness "Maybe I should start listening to him? After all, it got me you."

Lucy opened her mouth to respond but only a pained whimper escaped. The searing pain she had felt just after Natsu had bitten her had returned, it was ten times worse. She once again collapsed against the floor, the cool surface felt refreshing against her scorching hot skin.

"I think you're dying Lucy." Natsu's voice had changed again and she knew he had lost the fight, she was with the dragon now. "Your weak little body can't handle the amount of magic that was put into you. It's burning you from the inside out. You need to convince your little friends upstairs that we need to finish what we started otherwise things could get messy."

She lifted her head up to glance at Natsu, his slitted eyes narrowed at her face. "The mating needs to be complete. See that it is done otherwise your internal organs will end up being nothing but ash"

Managing a small nod, she crawled towards the door to the main guild hall, feeling weak and absolutely pathetic. _'Can't even handle a little dragon mating, I suck.'_

"I know what you're thinking." Natsu said roughly "Stop putting yourself down, you're a dragon's mate, stand up and be proud. This will all be fixed soon enough."

A ghost of a smile crossed her face, even when he wasn't himself, he was still looking out for her. _'Be proud huh?'_

Forcing herself onto her knees she grabbed the wall and pulled herself up to a standing position, much to her body's disagreement. She had to find Laxus and convince him to let them go. If not, she would just have to break Natsu out herself. It was for the greater good.

Pressing her entire body weight against the door it slowly gave way, a loud creaking noise echoed through the deserted guild hall. Wiping a sheen of sweat off her forehead she took in a few shallow breaths "Laxus? Master?"

She had to catch her breath before continuing, even talking was an effort, maybe he was right, maybe she was dying. "Where are you?" She managed to rasp out, losing her footing as she fell onto a nearby table, probably earning herself a wicked bruise from it.

"Luce what are you doing, are you aright?" Laxus said, appearing from the second floor, slightly alarmed at seeing her in such a state. Her hair was tousled and had dried sweat streaked all through it.

Her face had an unhealthy flush but the rest of her skin was pale. She grabbed his large forearm and pushed him towards the cellar "Release Natsu. We need to leave." He looked utterly speechless "Luce, this is the mating that's causing you to act like this, you need to go back to bed and rest then we can talk about-"

"No" Lucy interrupted, voice slightly shrill "It's me dying that's doing this. Release him right now or you'll be planning my funeral later."

"Dying?" Laxus said, being pushed closer to the cellar "Is it because you haven't finished the process?"

"Yes Laxus, we haven't fucked yet, that's exactly what the problem is, no need to be shy. He needs to properly seal his magic inside of me. Right now it's just running rampant." She flicked her hands in the direction of the fire dragon slayer, effectively dismissing Laxus. "Natsu. Now."

Not uttering another word, he ran down to Natsu, she heard a few muttered words answered by a loud growl and then silence.

 _'I think I'll rest a little'_ Lucy thought, leaning her head on a table she was now sitting against, her eyes were unbelievably heavy, like she hadn't slept for weeks. Closing them was heavenly, she swore she could hear choirs singing.

"Luce, wake up. We have stuff to do" She peeked through a bloodshot eye at her dragon who was now free. _'I just want some sleep.'_

* * *

"Hey." Lucy shouted as she was chucked onto Natsu's bed at his cottage, he had swung her over his shoulder like an utter caveman and ran back to his house. Her hair had painfully whipped her face at the speed he was going, being jiggled around on his back had made her feel extremely nauseous. All in all it wasn't a nice trip from the guild.

"Don't just chuck me, I'm delicate." She rubbed her hands over her sensitive abdomen where she had previously bashed it earlier on, Natsu shot down to be eye level with it, his slitted eyes narrowing at the ugly imperfection.

"Me?" He questioned, wondering if he had caused the bruise. He was rough with her but not that rough.

"No Natsu, not you. I did that." She said softly. When Natsu was taken over by his dragon he was such a simpleton that only knew that he wanted Lucy to be his. Nothing else had shone through from the beast, just that he was a possessive freak that surprisingly turned her on.

His warm lips pressed against her tender skin and then her mind went blank. All she could think about was Natsu, deep inside her. Finishing what he had started. She smiled seductively at the pink haired man whose gaze was solely fixed on her stomach. "Natsu, I need you."

* * *

His eyes slid up her body, his lips still on her body.

"Give me a minute" He squeaked out. Then he ran away, his metaphorical tail tucked between his legs. His dragon always took control and then when it came to the most important part he dropped Natsu in it and said good luck.

Once he was safely hidden away in his kitchen he tried to get Lucy a glass of water and to try and sort his head out but his hands refused to stop shaking.

"Natsu. Come back please." Her voice had changed. It almost purred for him. Starting to freak out he went to walk back into the room but circled back and pulled his hair in frustration.

 _'What have you done?'_ he screamed internally at his inner dragon, it laughed at him _'I got you what you wanted. You have to go to her you fool. She's in there waiting, don't waste this opportunity to fix things. Finish what you started you coward.'_

"Thanks for the pep talk." he murmured sarcastically.

Taking a deep breath, he slowly walked back into the living room on unsteady legs when a bra hit him square in the face. Pulling off the silky undergarment he examined its owner, Lucy was currently sprawled across the covers of his bed, completely naked.

She glanced up at Natsu and giggled. "I got hot." He averted his eyes and started to stutter, when she crawled towards him. "It's okay. Come lie down with me, I want a nap with my favorite dragon."

"Your only dragon." He growled, shocking himself at how angry he suddenly got. His temper was as fiery as his magic. Before Lucy could respond to his possessive remark he carried on speaking.

"I could do with a nap actually, especially after being stuck in that cramped cage for so long. Yeah, that's a perfect idea." He went to climb under the covers but was halted by Lucy's outstretched hand pressing against his shoulder. "No clothes."

She said with a smirk on her face. His mouth fell open at her forwardness. _'It's nothing she hasn't seen before just do it, you'll be fucking her soon enough.'_

He was getting sick of having this other part of him constantly talking in his head, it was annoying and very distracting. _'You're disgustingly vulgar. Go away.'_ He relaxed his shoulders so his vest fell onto the floor, and dropped his pants, following her rules so he could get into bed with her.

Lucy's brown eyes were filled with glee as she fell back against the bed, seemingly falling asleep instantly.

"What the hell is happening. This is all too crazy for me." Natsu mumbled as he crawled under the covers, pulling the passed out Lucy with him and held her against his warm body. She was completely relaxed and snoring softly.

Finally being able to look at her with clear eyes and a clear mind he spotted what everyone was fussing about. His mating mark on her neck was half complete. It was very tender looking, the puncture marks were clear to see and there was a minute amount of crimson scales starting to form. It pleased him to see his claim so visible.

When he had bitten her, well when his dragon had, he had pumped some of his fire slayer magic inside her, that was how dragon slayers mate. But it was dangerous if they didn't seal the magic away first.

Lucy had a bad reaction to the transfer because it wasn't done the proper way, his inner beast got too excited at being so close to her that he went and screwed it all up. Now, yet again, Natsu was stuck dealing with the consequences.

Natsu and Lucy were supposed to complete the bond by, well having sex. Looking down at her face he knew he was running out of time, he had to do it, now or never. This wasn't how he imagined his first time with her, he thought it would feel more natural. Not stuck on a time limit.

Soft kisses started trailing up his neck, she sucked gently on a patch of skin just below his ear, leaving a small purple mark. Her own version of marking him.

 _'She just passed out? That was the quickest nap ever.'_

"I want you to fuck me Natsu, will you do that?" She then pressed a kiss on his open mouth, her tongue trailing inside, teasing him.

"What did I tell you about teasing me?" He snarled as he rolled her onto her back and took control. His head went to straight to the crook of her neck, where his mark was, just as she grabbed his member and placed it at her entrance.

"I'm ready, just do it, please." She was writhing underneath his body, rubbing herself on his rock hard erection which was slowly slipping further inside her wet core.

"You want me to lose control don't you? You like it."

She moaned at his words, confirming his suspicions. His hand rested in her soft hair as his lips caressed her neck then without warning, sunk his teeth into her supple skin and thrust his hips forward so he entered her fully causing a sensory overload for the poor blonde. She whimpered loudly at the sensation of being so full.

Smiling against her skin, he looked up at her face, fresh blood staining his lips.

"I love you Lucy. Let me make you feel good."

* * *

"You definitely broke me, I'm all yours now because I don't think I'm ever moving again." After their intense work out of sorts, Lucy and Natsu were snuggled on top of the covers, attempting to catch their breath.

The bed sheets and Lucy's inner thighs were covered in blood from her innocence being taken. Natsu laughed, the skin at the corner of his eyes crinkling as he smiled.

"That was incredible. You're incredible." He kissed her forehead tenderly. He was truly and utterly in love with this girl. Nothing could ruin what they had just shared. She was the best thing that had ever happened to him and will ever happen to him.

"You're not so bad yourself. I feel much better. The burning's gone. How does it look now?" Lucy said as she tilted her head to the side so Natsu could get a clear view of her neck. He grinned widely. "I can't wait to show everyone."


	10. Chapter 10

"Look it's Lisanna's birthday, the least you can do is show up. It's disrespectful if you don't, she's your friend isn't she? You two go way back, I don't see what the problem is." Lucy continuously argued her point as she and Natsu walked up to Fairy Tail's guild hall, she was practically dragging the stubborn dragon slayer behind her.

He was very insistent that if she made him come he couldn't be held responsible for his actions. Whatever that meant, it didn't feel as menacing as he tried to make it sound.

She had shrugged it off and continued to pull him along. "Let's have fun, it's the first time we've come out of the house since we mated."

Lucy's hand instinctively went to touch her neck which was now fully covered in crimson scales, Natsu placed his hand on top of hers, a slight rumble sounding in his chest.

"I can't have you wearing my scarf anymore, it will cover it. Unless you fancy wearing it around your head? Ninja Lucy."

His eyes twinkled as he pulled it from his neck and attempted to tie it around the blonde's forehead. Batting away his hands she scoffed.

"Keep dreaming pinky, you'll mess up my hair. Keep it on, it always suited you better anyway."

He wiggled his eyebrows. "I guarantee by the end of the night, this scarf will be wrapped around some part of your body. Hopefully covering these big bundles of joy." He palmed her breasts, in full view of the now open doors of the guild.

Blushing madly, she pressed her arms over her chest, much to Natsu's displeasure and waved at their friends.

"Lucy, come in here already and bring Natsu. You two are so cute I could just squish you." Mira was practically squealing as the newest couple of Fairy Tail approached her. Natsu took Lucy's hand in his and grasped it tightly.

"Don't be nervous Luce, you're amazing and you're mine. Here we go. Follow my lead." He barged forward, winking at Gajeel and nodding his head at Lucy, a small smile formed on the iron dragon slayer's lips at his actions, as if he were trying to brag that he had managed to mate with the girl he loved while Gajeel was still pining after his from afar.

His red eyes flickered over to Levy who was sat in the corner of the guild, nose deep in a book. Some things never changed.

Mira followed at the side of Lucy, staring intently at her now fully completed mark on her neck. "Can I touch it?" She said, completely in awe. Lucy gave her a weird look but nodded. Her dainty fingers traced the scaled patterns, Lucy giggled at the contact as the newly formed skin was still fairly sensitive.

"Wow." Mira said as she pulled away and walked behind the bar. "It's like, crazy warm. You can feel the magic pulsing underneath it." She poured them both a drink and smiled brightly "I haven't said it yet but congratulations. I'm so happy for you both."

"Thanks Mira." Natsu said through a mouthful of food that he had gotten from Mavis knows where. Rolling her eyes Lucy turned back to face Mira "So where's the birthday girl? I haven't seen her anywhere."

Mira's face got a look as if she had just sucked on a lemon, it's a very rare sight to see the silver haired beauty pull anything except for a dazzling smile so this intrigued Lucy. "What's happened Mira? Spill the beans."

"She won't come, she came back from a solo mission yesterday and found out from everyone that you and Natsu had bonded and now she's sulking. She was out all last night too. Honestly, you wouldn't think she was turning 17, she is acting like a child and I can't deal with it. She won't listen to anything I say."

Lucy felt awful, she always knew that Lisanna had a crush on Natsu and Lucy had thought he had returned the feelings but obviously not. To Lisanna it probably felt like she had stolen the pink haired idiot from right under her nose.

 _'I bet she hates me.'_ Lucy thought sadly. She had never made any enemies by fault of her own and she didn't like the thought of that starting now.

"Do you want me to talk to her?" She blurted out, shocking Mira and making Natsu choke on his food.

While stroking the fire dragon slayer's back, she pulled a concerned face "Are you sure Lucy? I can't guarantee she won't try to bludgeon you or something equally as violent. She didn't seem quite herself this morning. Us Strauss siblings are sweet as pie until one little thing ticks us off and bam."

She whacked her fist on Natsu's back, causing whatever was blocking his airways to come flying out and it shot across the guild hall. "She is a takeover mage so be prepared for anything but if you're sure then I won't talk you out of it. She's at our house, be careful."

Feeling like she had been dismissed, Lucy stood up and opted to pressing a kiss on Natsu's forehead as his lips were covered in grease and food. "I'll be back soon, this needs to be sorted." He tried to argue but she quickly shushed him.

"It needs to be sorted by someone who can be gentle. You're too brash and there's no guarantee that your little dragon isn't going to come out to play." Natsu's eyes widened in shock at what Lucy said and she realized how he had taken that and covered her face with her hand.

 _'Honestly, he's got such a filthy mind.'_

"Not **that** little dragon. Your other one, that takes over at the worst possible times. Behave, don't start any fights with Gray and I'll be back soon."

Sliding her hand down her thigh, Lucy made sure that she had her keys securely fastened as she had a bad feeling that she may need to use them soon. They warmed up to her touch to acknowledge her anxiety and say they were there whenever she needed them.

* * *

"What the hell do you want? Haven't you done enough already?" To say Lisanna Strauss looked rough would be too kind, she looked like death warmed up.

"Look's like someone partied a bit too hard last night huh." Lucy laughed awkwardly as she stepped from foot to foot at the entrance outside of Lisanna's house. "Don't make me repeat myself Lucy." Lisanna said, not slightly impressed with Lucy's attempt at lightening the mood.

 _'Wow okay feisty, meow.'_

"Look, can I come in and talk please?" Lucy maintained eye contact with the silver haired girl until she groaned loudly and pushed the door wider to allow her to enter. Sighing in relief Lucy walked past her into the living room and soon regretted it as squeaked in shock.

"Bickslow what the hell? I can see your penis. Put some clothes on." Lying on the floor was the famous seith mage of Fairy Tail and hardcore partier, Bickslow.

He rolled over mumbling about who knows what, his totems were floating around him, occasionally knocking into him as he stood up, completely nude and walked out of the room and into what Lucy assumed was the bathroom. She couldn't help but notice the claw marks up his back and his red raw bum. _'Kinky.'_

Lisanna laughed behind her as Lucy was still reeling from what she had just saw, her temper was slowly rising. She knew he was in here and she had still let Lucy walk in here and witness it.

"Real funny. Okay so obviously I was misinformed about you having feelings for Natsu? I came over here to try and give you some closure and convince you to come and enjoy your party at the guild. He's waiting to wish you a happy birthday."

Her bitchy face cracked slightly at the mention of the pink haired man but she soon covered it up with a sneer, this was nothing like the girl who came back from Edolas, the sister of Mira and Elfman was a kind, sweet girl who wouldn't hurt anyone if she could avoid it. Something not quite right was going on, Lucy could sense it.

"Lisanna are you feeling alr-"

"No" She shouted, interrupting Lucy and leaping onto of her, making her fall onto the floor and smash her head on their coffee table in the center of the room on the way down. Feeling very woozy, Lucy opened her eyes and stared up at the deranged girl on top of her, she had transformed into one of her takeover souls, her clawed hands grasped her neck, she could feel them puncturing her skin, blood was now oozing down her shoulder and onto the floor.

"You're insane, what are you doing Lisanna?" Lucy sputtered out, this was not going how she had planned. She was supposed to accept that her and Natsu were bonded for life now and that was it. It wasn't supposed to end up with her incapacitated on the floor. How embarrassing.

For some reason she remembered what Natsu had the last time she had thought she was weak.

 _'Stop putting yourself down, you're a dragon's mate, stand up and be proud'_

"Lisanna if you don't get your fucking hand off my neck right now you're going to seriously regret it." Lucy's voice was deep and commanding, she really hoped Lisanna knew she wasn't messing about. She didn't know what was happening but she could feel something stir in her belly with the rise of her anger. It was burning.

"Lis hey I'm going to go n- hey what the hell are you doing to Lucy?" Bickslow had walked into the room to say goodbye and saw the take over mage mangling Lucy's neck, his wobbly form held the wall as he tried to approach the pair on the floor, he was sporting a serious hangover, it was pitiful to watch him stumble around like a buffoon.

"You think you can just take whatever you want don't you princess, life doesn't work like that. Fairy Tail doesn't work like that. I'm going to ruin your pretty little face, Natsu won't want to look at you ever again." Lisanna clawed across her face, smiling at the deep gashes it caused and at the loud scream that left Lucy's lips.

The searing pain in her belly was getting worse. "Lisanna get the hell off me, for your own good, please." Lucy was begging now as the girl straddling her laughed, her eyes looked wrong. Glancing down at Lisanna's neck she saw a magic circle etched onto her skin.

 _'what the fuck.'_

"Bickslow what the hell happened to her? What's that magic circle on her?"

He looked at Lucy, his exposed eyes were starting to glow green as he got more and more distressed, he pulled at his mohawk as he fell against the door frame, his body giving up on him.

"It's just a thing to give you a bit of a high, it can sometimes make you hallucinate. We got it last night while we were drunk, just to make the buzz last a bit longer. It's usually harmless, I don't understand."

Feeling a sharp pain in her stomach, her attention was brought back to Lisanna who was now digging her claws into Lucy's abdomen. _'Uh oh.'_ She thought as the fire started to run rampant in her body. "Bickslow get her off me, she'll die."

He leaped off the floor with every ounce of energy he had left and yanked her off of Lucy's body just as a torrent of flames escaped the celestial mage's mouth. It encased the room and completely surrounded Lucy's body, making it easy for Bickslow to drag the crazed Lisanna out of the room.

Lucy heard the front door slam open and a furious voice echoed through the house "Where the hell is my girlfriend?"

"Follow the fire dude, she's fucking awesome." Bickslow said excitedly as he tried to keep Lisanna in his grasp who had become very unsettled at Natsu's presence, she was screaming at him "She deserved it Natsu!"

Natsu stepped into the fiery room and saw Lucy who was inside her very own fireball, he pushed his hand through the wall of flames covering her.

"Did I forget to tell you that you might take on some of my magical traits?" He sucked in a breath and ate all of the flames in the room, leaving it only slightly singed but his heart shattered at the sight of his mate who was curled up on the floor, bloody and bruised.

"What happened baby? I'll kill her." He spun around to grab the youngest Strauss sibling but stopped at Lucy's voice "Don't. It wasn't her fault. She's not completely with us, she got a weird magic engraved on her."

Lucy winced as she sat up, her neck released a fresh stream of blood at the movement. "She needs to get it removed, I bet this just felt like one big dream to her."

Natsu's eyes started to fill up with unshed tears. "I felt that something was wrong, your fear was coming in waves. I should have gotten here sooner."

Kneeling forward she pressed her forehead against Natsu's and smiled "Never a dull day with me around is it. I'm just glad you got here at all."


	11. Chapter 11

Natsu paced the floor next to Lucy's bedside at Fairy Tail's infirmary, listening anxiously to what Porlyusica was saying. The old hag had been running between Lucy and Lisanna's beds all morning, trying to keep an eye on the takeover mage's condition and to check the state of Lucy's organs.

Since she had managed to breathe dragon fire so early into the mating process, she was concerned that Lucy had caused herself some damage. All the rest of the injuries that she had sustained from her fight with Lisanna were cleaned and bandaged up.

Glancing down at her sleeping form, Natsu eyes started to sting at the thought of the pain she had been through. It was all his fault, he should have never let her go without him.

"A wizard's power gets drastically increased when their emotions are running high. Her rage fueled the magic to grow until it burst out. Lucy shouldn't have been able to manifest fire magic just yet but her raw emotion caused it to bubble to the surface so her body hadn't adjusted to the change yet."

Porlyusica placed the back of her hand on Lucy's forehead, frowning slighting at what she felt. "She's got quite a temperature but her body will still be transforming to accommodate your fire magic that's living inside of her. She just needs some rest. Make sure she doesn't leave this bed."

Glancing down at Lucy's mating mark, the healer smirked "And no strenuous activities, I am aware of what mating does to your hormones but for her sake, keep it in your pants Natsu."

Choking at her words, Natsu's face turned bright red out of sheer embarrassment. Porlyusica let out a sharp laugh and walked back over to Lisanna's bedside, she frowned deeply and tutted.

"No more playing around with strange magic, you hear? Lost love is not worth your life, get some rest child and I hope to not see you in here again."

Lisanna's eyes shot to Lucy's bed and widened when she saw Natsu was still stood there, staring at her. Quickly hiding herself under the covers she started to shake violently as sobs racked her body. He had a feeling that she was struggling with the memories of what she had done to the celestial mage.

 _'We should probably kill her, she hurt our mate. It would be foolish to allow her to live. Letting her think she can get away with such things is not acceptable.'_

Natsu shook his head, to try and get rid of the poisonous words from his inner dragon. _'I'm not killing her, she's family. Leave this to me, don't get involved or you'll make things worse.'_

He could feel his alter ego scoff at his response and try to take control of his body. It felt like someone was clawing their way up his spine and trying to settle in his brain, like an insect burrowing inside of him. He needed to get out of there and fast.

He shouted over his shoulder as he grabbed his bag to leave. "Lucy I'm going to get you some stuff from home, I'll feed the fish and get you some clothes, love you bye."

Running out of the room like a madman, the blonde mage groaned loudly at being woken up. She rolled onto her side "Five more minutes Natsu." She mumbled, spreading out as if she were in her large bed at home and managed to tumble out of the side of the bed.

Squeaking in shock as she landed on the cold floor, she placed her hand on her head and rubbed it "Man, what happened? Where am I now?"

A stinging pain in her face brought her back to reality. _'Lisanna, she attacked me.'_ Remembering what Bickslow said, the sour feelings that tried to claw it's way into her mind fully dissipated. She had a magic circle on her neck, it must have been influencing her actions. There was no way that Lisanna would ever act like that if she wasn't under the control of something. She was a sweet girl.

"Lucy." A voice sniffled from across the room, glancing over at the source of the voice, all Lucy could see was a small form huddled under the covers of one of the beds.

She frowned as she placed her feet on the floor and limped over to the hidden person. When she reached the bed, she could just see a few strands of white hair and immediately knew who it was.

 _'That poor girl, this is not a good way to spend your birthday.'_

"Lisanna, are you alright? Squeeze over." Gently pressing on her back, Lucy slid into the bed next to the take over mage and held her tightly against her body, trying her best to comfort her."Am I alright? Why are you worrying about me? Do you not remember what I did to you? I'm a monster."

Lisanna twisted her body so she was facing Lucy and pressed her tear stained face into her neck, letting out choked breaths and she cried her heart out to the blonde.

After everything that had happened that morning, Lucy felt no resentment towards this girl. Only sadness. Listening to the pain in her voice, she just wanted to do whatever it took to make her smile again. They were guild mates, family. That was all that mattered.

"Lisanna, this was not your fault. Bickslow shouldn't have let you do such a stupid thing, if he took you out, he was responsible for looking after you and he failed but he couldn't of known that something like this would happen. It was an accident."

Lisanna sniffed and wiped her eyes "You're too good a person Lucy, Natsu always deserved nothing but the best. You really are perfect for him. I'm so sorry for what I did to you." She gently pressed her hand against Lucy's bandaged cheek "Your face." Her eyes started to fill up with tears again at the thought of what she had done.

"Lisanna please. It's not as if anything you did to me is permanent, as soon as Wendy gets home I'll be as good as new and it will be as if nothing happened, I don't want this to eat you up inside like I can see it already is."

Wiping away a stray tear that fell down her face, she smiled at Lisanna. "Nobody is going to blame you for what happened, I certainly don't so please don't blame yourself."

"What's going on? Did I miss something?" The two girls looked at the doorway to the infirmary, Natsu was stood there with Bickslow behind him, both of them were holding provisions for them both. Lucy giggled and hopped out of bed towards her man.

"Hello there, what has my lovely dragon brought for me? I hope there's some chocolate in there somewhere."

As she rooted through Natsu's arms in search of the sweet goodness she was craving, Bickslow approached Lisanna, a pitiful look on his visor-less face. His blue and black hair wasn't in it's usual mohawk but flat against his skull.

He held out a small bouquet of pink roses, a small peace offering considering what had happened because of his stupidity. "Hey Lis, I want you to know how sorry I am, this never would have happened if I hadn't taken you out last night and-"

"Hush" She pressed a finger against her lips as a signal for him to stop talking and patted the bed next to her for him to sit down. "I made all my own choices, you didn't force me to do anything so don't say another word about it."

"I'm glad she's okay." Lucy murmured, watching Lisanna interact with Bickslow made her think that the day wasn't completely ruined for her. She collapsed against the bed, pulling Natsu down with her.

"I don't want anyone to know what happened between me and Lisanna this morning. It needs to stay between the four of us. If anybody asks what happened to me, tell them something like I got attacked on the way to check on her, there's wolves and stuff in the forest right? One of them could have easily jumped me."

"You're amazing." Natsu said as he held linked his hand with hers and placed it over her abdomen. "I can't believe you did a fire breath attack, I wish I could've seen it."

"It really hurt, didn't Porlyusica say that I shouldn't be doing it yet? My body wasn't ready yet or something." Natsu nodded at her words "Yep, she said that your insides aren't fireproof yet and if you do it again you'll burn yourself. So no more getting angry. You need to stay here and rest until Wendy arrives to fix you, then we'll work on getting you as powerful as me."

A large yawn escaped her lips at the mention of rest and her eyes slowly closed "You'll get no arguments from me." She pressed her face against Natsu's hard chest and fell into a dream full of pink haired dragons.

* * *

"There we go, all better." Wendy smiled brightly as she healed any and all wounds on Lucy's body, inside and out. The small dragon slayer had gotten back from her mission early for Lisanna's birthday, the last thing she expected was both her and Lucy to be stuck in the infirmary.

She got to work on quickly fixing both the girls so that Lisanna's birthday wasn't completely ruined.

Wendy asked no questions on how Lucy got into such a state or why Lisanna was there but she did start squealing about Lucy's mating mark "I knew you smelt different, I am so happy for you both. The first mission I go on in months and I miss out on this. Isn't this amazing Charle?" She looked down at her exceed partner excitedly.

Charle smiled and went to hold Lucy's hand but instantly pulled away, her eyes becoming distant as a horrified look crossed her face. She looked at Natsu in disgust. "Get away from her you monster, I will not allow you to hurt her."

She started to bat her clawed paws at him but was held back by Wendy who was in shock at the sudden change in her behavior "Charle what is the matter with you? Natsu would never hurt Lucy, are you insane?"

"My vision. I saw it Wendy, I saw Lucy, she was covered in blood, chained to the floor like an animal. Natsu was stood in the doorway of the room she was being kept in. He was smiling."

The three of them looked at Natsu, he stared back with a confused look on his face "What?"

"It's never ending." Lucy moaned out as she pushed a pillow over her face. "I need a drink."


	12. Chapter 12

Lucy dropped two plates of fire chicken down onto the table that she and Natsu were sharing. The atmosphere everywhere else in the guild was fun and friendly but at their table there was a dark cloud looming over them.

"Natsu, you need to forget about what Charle said, how many times has she had one of these" Lucy raised her hands up and bent her fingers "Visions and it turned out that she just completely misunderstood what she was seeing. Don't you remember the last one she had about you and Gray? She thought you were-"

Natsu's hand shot forward and pressed against her mouth to stop her from speaking the unspeakable. She had promised she would never bring it up again. It was too embarrassing for him and too hilarious for her. A couple of months back Charle had brushed up against Gray in the guild, which had in turn triggered a vision to follow.

In said vision was an image of Gray and Natsu seemingly pressed up against each other on the floor, looking rather intimate. When they had found out what she had seen, they both exclaimed in disgust for several minutes, then avoided each other like the plague, refusing to go on missions together or even be in Magnolia at the same time. It was a hard time for team Natsu.

One night when Natsu returned early from a mission, not knowing that Gray was at the guildhall he came in and had a quick wash at the communal baths, whereas Gray was running away from Juvia's many attempts to get her hands under his clothes, taking a sharp turn around the corner of one of the guild hall's corridors to escape her wandering hands, he ran smack into Natsu who had just left the baths and was clad only in a towel and landed on top of him, exactly how Charle had seen it.

It wasn't anything like what Charle had thought she had seen and they had made the vision she had seen come to pass because of how hard they tried to avoid it. Lucy had come to accept that if something was meant to happen, there was nothing anywhere in the world that could stop it. Yanking his hand off her mouth she frowned at Natsu's glum looking face "Look all I was trying to say was things aren't always what they seem so shut up with this moping and eat some chicken."

His face instantly perked up at the mention of food, his gaze focusing on the two plates that she had placed down, like he had only just realized they was there. "You got me two? You really are the best girlfriend ever." She slapped his hand that was reaching for the second plate of fire chicken.

"No way mister, that is my food. I happen to have developed a certain taste for the spicier things in life, is that a problem?"

He pouted as he picked up a chicken leg and examined it. "No, no problem here. Just possible starvation."

She snorted and started to eat her food, surprised that the usually overwhelming spiciness wasn't making her sweat and gag like it usually did, she really was taking on some of Natsu's powers and definitely some of his mannerisms.

She found herself shoving the chicken into her mouth at an alarmingly fast rate that would have given her father a heart attack if she had eaten like that at one of their formal dinner parties when she were younger.

Completely uncaring of how unattractive she looked, she kept shoveling until there was nothing left and her plate was clean. Glancing over at Natsu's still healthily full plate she raised her eyebrows and held her hand out "Are you going to eat that or can I have it?"

He wrapped his arm protectively around his plate of food and growled "No this is mine, you've turned into a food gremlin, this is not good Luce. There's not room for two of us."

"Shut up idiot, I was just hungry, hurry up and finish so we can go home and sleep. I don't know about you but I just want our bed and to hibernate for a few days."

He raised his eyebrows suggestively as he tipped the food off the plate into his mouth.

"And other things I hope?"

Lucy giggled loudly as she wiped away any evidence of her dinner off her face and went in the direction of the bar to pay for their dinner, she was just happy that he wasn't moping around anymore. If she wasn't concerned about Charle's vision, he shouldn't be either. Lucy just had a feeling that there were good times coming their way.

Mira glanced up from her workstation and smiled brightly at the approaching girl as she wiped down the already immaculate bar top, say what you will about the girl, she kept the guild beautifully clean despite how messy some of their guild mates were and she always did it with a smile on her face like she was just glad to be kept busy.

"The fire chicken was exquisite, thank you so much for whipping it up for us, I know the kitchen was closed but I really do appreciate it. You're the angel of Fairy Tail Mirajane Strauss."

She winked at the blonde. "You know I'm no angel Lucy. I'm glad you liked it but I obviously couldn't refuse you, especially with a little bun in the oven."

Lucy's eyes practically bulged out of her head at the mention of a mini version of her and Natsu, an image of a small bundle with a head of pink hair and large brown eyes flashed in her head. _'That would look pretty cute though'_

"You'll need to get a bigger place and-" Lucy finally clocked onto what Mira was saying and started to wave her hands in front of the girl's face, attempting to get her attention and pull her out of the baby daze she had stumbled and fallen into.

"Mira no stop. We're not having a baby, what the hell gave you that idea?" Lucy stared incredulously at the white haired mage who had that dreamy look appear in her eyes whenever she was thinking about matchmaking. Lucy had learnt to never trust that look, ever. It led to very bad, embarrassing things.

The dreamy look was then replaced with a innocent smile "Well, isn't that what dragon slayer mating is all about? You find your mate and then" She raised her hand up to cover what she was about to say "Have lots of babies"

She squealed the last word which caused Lucy to flinch at the high pitched tone. _'Was that really what happened? We didn't use protection but I'm on the pill.'_

Glancing back at Natsu who was surprisingly not trying to listen into their conversation, he was fully immersed in his meal. There was no way for her to get pregnant, the chances were like 1% if she was on the pill which she took religiously.

"Well I'll have to get back to you on that one Mira, have a good night." Placing the jewel for the food on the bar top, she high tailed it to Natsu and pulled him out of the guild. "Why are we leaving so soon? Are you that excited to get to bed? I'm excited too, fun times happen in bed."

 _'Again with that talk, maybe Mira was right.'_

"Natsu we're sleeping and that's it. I just want to get back."

He groaned loudly and shuffled along beside her as they reached Magnolia's high street.

"We only ever sleep, you're so boring. Starvation and blue balls."

Ignoring his comment she took his hand in hers and smiled.

"Just give me tonight, I promise tomorrow we'll have some fun, can you wait that long?"

Hugging her from behind, he pressed his pelvis against her lower back, she could feel the hard ridge of his erection rubbing through his trousers. "Does this feel like it can wait Luce?" He whispered in her ear causing a shower of goosebumps to trail down her neck.

A small smile stretched her lips as she pressed back against him, making him think she were willing to grant his wish.

"It will have to wait won't it." Then she took off in a quick sprint, rushing into the town center she ran smack into a solid body and would have fell onto her back if the person didn't hold her in place.

"I'm so sorry I wasn't looking where I was going, please forgive me." Lucy exclaimed as she took a step away from the person she had barreled into. It was a tallish man, about 6ft with dark slicked back hair and an angular facial structure. His eyes were warm and friendly as they stared down at her.

"No problem child." They spotted the scaled pattern on her neck and narrowed ever so slightly but Lucy noticed. "That's a very pretty tattoo you have there, may I inquire as to where you got it from?"

"She got it from me buddy so back off." Natsu wrapped his arm around her shoulders possessively and puffed out his chest, trying to make himself look bigger and state his dominance. He really was stupid sometimes but she still pulled her long blonde hair forward to cover her neck.

"Ah, my mistake." He patted Natsu's shoulder roughly and walked past them to leave, his eyes never leaving Lucy "Have a lovely night both of you. See you around."

"No chance there buddy." Natsu muttered at his retreating form. Pressing a kiss against the soft skin on Lucy's temple, he squeezed her against his side "You're all mine, now let's go get some _sleep_."

Lucy rolled her eyes as she allowed him to lead her towards the entrance to the woods, she could feel someone's eyes on her, she didn't need to look to see it was the gentleman she had run into still staring after her. _'What a weirdo.'_

* * *

"If you kick me out of bed tonight, I swear to Mavis you're sleeping in your hammock again." Slipping under the freshly changed covers she moaned at how nice it felt against her bare skin. Feeling something rubbing against her leg, she tried not to scream but her leg moved by itself and kicked whatever it was out of the covers. A small thud hit the floor.

"Ouch Lucy you're so mean, I just wanted to get some sleep, it's been a long flight." A small voice said.

"Happy?" Natsu squealed excitedly as he jumped out of bed to reunite with his best friend "Buddy I missed you."

Happy stood up and brushed his paws down his body, a snooty look on his face "I missed you too _Natsu."_ Glaring at Lucy he stuck his small tongue out at her "Didn't miss your stupid kicks Lucy." He looked at both of them and frowned "So Natsu why do we have a bed in the house and why are you two sharing it? Usually it's you Lucy kicks out."

Glancing sideways at Natsu, Lucy let out a sigh "This is going to be fun."


	13. Chapter 13

"You look like you could use a drink." Lisanna stated as she sat on the stool next to the celestial mage and winced when the blonde turned to face her. Her blue eyes filled with pity "Not to sound horrible but you really do look exhausted. What the hell happened? Did Natsu keep you up all night again?" A blush dusted her pale cheeks at the thought of what they had been doing.

She had clearly gotten over her crush on the pink haired dragon slayer and moved onto not necessarily better things but different things. Bickslow was definitely different. Lucy made a mental note to ask Lisanna what was going on between her and the seith mage, if there was anything.

Lucy frowned and shook her head "No, Mavis no. Natsu doesn't have the stamina to keep it up all night long. Happy came back last night from visiting the exceeds, wherever the hell they managed to settle down. He saw me and Natsu in bed together and so came the rampant of questions." Lucy sighed loudly as she ran her hands through her knotted hair "You know what that damn cat is like. Anyway they both kept me up all night. I forgot how noisy they could be together and they completely ignored me when I asked them to quiet down, honestly I've never known such a trouble making pair. I've just been so fatigued lately."

"Whoa Lucy calm down, you're on fire." Lisanna exclaimed jumping backwards off her stool, a look of alarm on her face. Lucy calmly glanced down at her hands and saw they were indeed engulfed in flames. Just like what happened to Natsu when his emotions got the better of him. _'Huh how about that'_

"I can't turn it off, how funny is that." Lucy genuinely found it hilarious and started laughing hysterically as the flames moved further up her arm. Then all of a sudden the warmth was replaced by blistering cold and that pissed her off. Looking down at her arms, they were encased with a thick layer of ice. "Gray Fullbuster, why is your ice all over my arms?"

The ice mage started to stumble over his words at the angry glare on her face "You were on fire, I was worried it was going to spread to the guild, we can't afford to rebuild the guildhall again. I'm sorry Lucy."

Smashing them hard against the counter she effectively shattered the ice and let out a sigh of relief. "It's fine, thank you Gray." She nodded at the black haired male and tried to smile nicely at him but it just came off looking extremely sarcastic. "So Lisanna how about that drink?"

The takeover mage's eyes were wide as she bobbed her head up and down and ran behind the counter to fix Lucy up something strong to drink. This fire power was becoming unpredictable and dangerous but there was squat she could do about it.

"Do you regret it?" Lisanna said as she placed the fruity smelling concoction in front of Lucy, making her eyes widen in happiness. "Regret what?" She said as she sucked on the straw of her drink, moaning when it hit her taste buds _'Lisanna really is the master of cocktails that taste like juice but are lethally strong'_

"Mating with Natsu, do you regret it? I know it must be hard taking on some of his fire slayer magic, clearly it's difficult to control. I'm a ear if you ever need one." The girl seemed genuinely concerned for her which Lucy found very sweet.

"I don't regret it, no. If i could go back in time I wouldn't change a thing. I really, truly love that pink haired idiot. He just makes me feel complete. Waiting around to do it wouldn't have been the right thing to do. It happened because it was meant to happen."

Smiling softly, she placed her hand on her neck and reminisced about all of the fun times she had spent with Natsu. "He found me that day in Hargeon, I may have approached him but he found me and he saved me by bringing me here. I will never be able to repay him for that. He's a good man and I'm so lucky to be able to call him mine."

Lisanna's eyes were shining with tears at Lucy's heartfelt words "You are really something else Lucy. Just make sure to keep him out of trouble, you'll have to deal with his antics for the rest of your life, good luck with that." She winked as she tried to make a joke, Lucy laughed and rubbed the back of her head nervously "Yeah I know, I'd like to think that he'd grow out of some of his bad behaviors but I'd be kidding myself. I said I loved him just the way he was, if he was boring he wouldn't be Natsu would he?"

"Very true Lucy, nobody in Fairy Tail would wish for him to be any different. So if he's busy with Happy all day, what are you going to be doing?"

Glancing around at the empty guild hall, the only things she could do to entertain herself was situate herself between Gray and Juvia to give the poor guy a break but she didn't fancy being drowned by a jealous water mage. Everyone else was either on missions or at home. She turned back to Lisanna and scrunched up her face "I honestly don't know, I don't really fancy going on a solo mission, they're no fun. It's usually just babysitting or something boring like that." _'I sound like Natsu, constantly expecting jobs to be exciting.'_

"You could come back to Fairy Hills with me? I'm going out with Bickslow later to check out this new club in town, you should come along. I promise it's going to be completely innocent, nothing like last time." Lisanna's face crumpled at the thought of what had happened the last time she had gone out with Bickslow and attacked Lucy the morning after "I promise it's solely drinking, I never usually do stuff like that-"

"Lisanna calm down, it's fine. I'd love to come out with you guys but I don't have anything to wear and Natsu would never let me."

"Natsu doesn't need to know, he's busy anyway." Coming out from behind the bar, she threw her apron on the work surface and pulled Lucy's arm for her to follow "C'mon let's go have some fun for once."

* * *

"I think this is a bit too small for me Lisanna, I'm a lot bigger than you are." Trying to pull down the tiny dress the youngest Strauss sibling had given her to wear was a nightmare. If she tried to pull it down to cover more of her thighs, her boobs would pop out. It was an extremely cheeky number, Natsu would kill her if he ever saw her in it.

"It looks perfect, red is so your color and it goes with your mating mark." Lisanna walked behind Lucy's back and pulled her, now washed and curled, hair up into a elegant twist to reveal her neck. The scaled pattern stood out even more as her hair was brushed to the side and secured with a clip. Lucy glanced in the mirror and her mouth fell open at how great she looked. Wearing a short red cocktail dress with black heels had never looked less boring.

"You wear that so much better than I do Lucy, you can keep it if you like."

A knock at the door sounded as two sets of footsteps approached the room, whoever it was was familiar enough with the house that they didn't need to wait for someone to let them in.

"Hey Lis it's me, I brought Gray along so Lucy didn't get lonely." Bickslow entered the room dressed casual, followed by Gray who was dressed up a bit more but still way more casual than what Lucy was dressed in.

"Nice dress cosplayer. Looking good as usual Lisanna" The seith mage said as he kissed Lisanna on the side of her head. "Yeah nice dress." Gray echoed as he coughed awkwardly. He was never one for complimenting people but it was nice that he tried.

"Thanks guys, we're about ready. Want to lead the way Bicks? I don't have a clue where this club is and I don't want to make us walk around all of Magnolia in these heels." Lisanna had a point, she was wearing crazy high heels because she was such a small girl she compensated for it with skyscraper shoes.

"Follow me ladies and Gray."

* * *

"I don't know about you guys but it's so hot in here." Lucy moaned out as she tried to fan herself with her hand. They had made it to the club and after several drinks, she was persuaded to come onto the dance floor. Big mistake.

"Gray sit with me at the table and exude your icy aura. I need cold." Giggling at the disappointed looks of all of girls surrounding them, she led Gray away from the masses of people and away from Lisanna and Bickslow who were slowly grinding each other without a care in the world.

Lucy was extremely relieved that the seith mage had decided to bring Gray along otherwise it would have been a long night of three wheeling for Lucy.

Finally reaching an empty table, Lucy pointedly looked at Gray and waited. He stared blankly back at her and waited. Huffing loudly, Lucy smacked his arm "Well hurry up and put your air con on, I'm melting here."

He rubbed his arm and frowned "I don't work like that, I use ice maker magic. I'm not a air con unit. I thought you were getting the powers of a fire dragon slayer anyway and you didn't feel the heat anymore?"

"I'm clearly still affected by the heat aren't I smartass."

"Excuse me Miss, I don't know if you remember me but I certainly remember you."

Squinting above her to see who was talking to her, she was disappointed to see that it was the gentleman from last night who she had walked into. The creepy guy who she had hoped she wouldn't see again ever. He gave her the chills and not in a good way.

"I remember you, is there something I can help you with? I'm kind of busy." _'Busy trying to get you to leave, what the hell is this guys problem'_

"I see you're rather warm, would you like to accompany me outside for a breath of fresh air and maybe a stroll?" The guy didn't know when to quit, that much was clear. Lucy shook her head from side to side "No thank you, I'm fine here. Now if you'll excuse me."

Sliding in her seat to face in the opposite direction, the man placed his fingers on her neck, on her mating mark and scratched her. Before she could react, Gray had flew across the table and lunged at the man, an ice spike was held in his hand as he pressed it under his chin, causing a small amount of blood to trickle down the ice. His reaction was insanely fast and she was thankful for it.

"Listen pal, she isn't interested so I suggest that if you don't want to get fried, you leave." Letting the spike melt into nothingness, Gray got to his feet and picked Lucy up as her whole body had gone stiff from shock. He walked them away from the guy who was still on the floor to the exit.

"I'll get your heart one day, you'll see." The gentleman shouted after them, a sinister chuckled followed.

"Lucy who was that? Did you know him?" Walking hurriedly, he took her in the direction of Natsu's cottage knowing that it was the best place for her. Unable to speak, Lucy shook her head and tucked her chin against her body. Before she knew it, they had arrived at Natsu's cottage and Gray was gently pushing her towards Natsu's open arms. A few mumbled words were exchanged but nothing Lucy could hear. She could just feel her consciousness slipping away.

"Love you Luce, let's get some sleep. I've got you." A soft voice said as she felt herself being wrapped in something warm and soft.

"Is she okay Natsu?" Another voice said.

"Yeah Happy, she's going to be just fine, she's home now."


	14. Chapter 14

"So what you're saying is that you managed to fail me again Lucius?" The gentleman speaking tapped his fingers on his thigh as he waited for an explanation as to why he didn't have what he wanted. His dark eyes examined the picture that was placed in his lap by his underling. A gentleman with black hair, holding an ice spike was in the photo, he was pointing at another man who had pink hair and flaming fists. Clearly the fire dragon slayer they had been monitoring.

"The guy in that photo with the dragon slayer got in my way. I could have gotten to her no problem if he didn't interfere. I think he needs to be taken care of first. May I be given an opportunity to-"

A blood gurgle sounded, the man known as Lucius face had gone deathly pale as a small trickle of blood dribbled out of his lips. A large spike was now impaling him to the wall, letting him know that his service was no longer needed. All conversations that were going on in the room quietened down. Everyone stood up and calmly turned to leave, clearly used to this kind of behavior and knew when to vacate the premises. "Sir. Michael please. I can-"

"No you can't. You've failed me for the last time. I will get the girl myself. You shall see her again don't worry, in the afterlife."

Then with a clean cut, he held the mans decapitated head from his body by his slick black hair and dropped it to the floor with a heavy thud. "Goodbye Lucius." Michael stared down fondly at a picture he had safely tucked away in his pocket, a picture of a certain blonde with a cheeky smile and big brown eyes. "Lucy." He whispered, trailing his finger down her pictured face.

* * *

 _'What smells so good.'_ Lucy's head rose off her pillow, the sweet smell of waffles and bacon was making her body move before she was even fully awake. "Ah sleeping beauty awakens. How's my lovely lady this morning?" Gentle kisses trailed down her neck as she was pulled back down onto the bed.

Cracking her eyes open, she saw pink hair and slitted eyes. "Natsu are you feeling a little bit frustrated right now?" Her voice was still clogged with sleep, she raked her fingers through his thick hair and pulled.

Being yanked down, Natsu's eyes cleared slightly, enough to see if this was really what Lucy wanted, after what had happened to her last night and the state she had been in, the last thing he wanted to do was to pressure her into anything physical. "Are you-"

Her mouth crashed against his, a soft moan vibrated from her lips at the soft sensation and small spark of fire emanated from their linked hands.

"You two are doing naughty stuff and now the food's burnt." Happy's sad voice sounded above them causing them to break apart and the fire they had been creating to fizzle out and die. Lucy squealed in frustration and Natsu swiped at the flying cat with a talon like hand. "Every." _Swipe_ "Time." _Swipe._

"I'm going for a cold shower." The pink haired slayer grumbled as he trudged out of the bedroom, a huge bulge protruding from his pajama bottoms. Lucy flopped against the bed and laughed "Sorry Happy, I'll buy you some waffles at the guildhall, how about that?" When he agreed she hopped off the bed and followed Natsu _'I have a certain someone to make happy now.'_

Silently slipping inside of the bathroom, Natsu was indeed having a cold shower, steam was pouring out of the cubicle because of the sheer clash of temperatures, his body heat was through the roof. He needed an ice bath or for Lucy to sort him out. Shrugging off Natsu's over sized t-shirt, she opened the shower door and knelt down to be face to face with his member that was refusing to shrink back from the cold jets of water. _'Just as stubborn as it's owner'_

One of Natsu's eyes opened and looked down at his mate, placing his hand on the back of her head, he guided her to his aching length that was begging for some attention from her. She didn't want to tease him, they never had time to just have fun, he was always protecting her from something and she wanted to thank him, what better way than a blow job?

 _'I've never done this before, please don't let me fuck it up.'_

Kissing the tip, she was surprised that the taste of his skin wasn't as bad as people had described it to be, she might even say that she liked it. Her tongue trailed the edge of him, then slowly creating a suction that made Natsu buckle at the knees. Grabbing onto a nearby shelf, he struggled to support himself at this new sensation, her lips were burning hot on his sensitive skin. "Fuck Luce, wow."

 _'He likes it, thank Mavis.'_

Increasing the speed, she bobbed her head further forward, with the encouragement of Natsu's hand, she managed to take almost all of him inside her mouth but gagged slightly at the end causing his hold to loosen. His hand slid from the back of her head to the side of her face, giving her a soft caress.

Lucy opened her large brown orbs and stared up at her dragon, sucked hard and just like that. Natsu was done. Moaning loudly he tried to tell her he was going to cum but it just came out in a jumble of incoherent words. She managed to get the gist and pulled him even further into the warmth of her mouth and gladly took everything he was offering.

After that, Natsu now flaccid member left her lips and he slid down to join her on the floor, his head rested on her slippery breasts. Lucy licked her lips and giggled. "It didn't taste half as bad as I was expecting."

* * *

"What do you mean he's missing?" Lucy questioned, once they had arrived at the guild hall, Natsu and Happy ran on ahead, in desperate need of some food after their breakfast had burnt. Juvia had then pounced onto the celestial mage, rivers of tears streaming from her eyes. At first Lucy could only hear loud gurgles but once she shook the water mage she managed to get some sense out of her.

"Gray. I haven't seen him all morning. On a Wednesday I usually follow him from his apartment to the guild hall." She looked up at the sky wistfully and smiled. "It's our routine, but this morning he was nowhere to be seen and he never breaks his schedule. He wasn't anywhere in his apartment building and I can't find him at the guild either. I'm so scared."

 _'Juvia's right, Gray is a creature of routine. If he doesn't stick to the plan he makes everyday, he falls apart and acts like a drama queen. I wonder where he got to after dropping me home last night.'_

"Juvia, did you happen to see him make it home last night?" She nodded quickly "Yes but I wasn't following you guys or anything though, completely coincidental. He got back home at about half past one in the morning. Will you help me look for him?"

Glancing at the guildhall where Natsu was waiting, she sighed and nodded. _'Never a minutes peace.'_

"Come on then Juvia let's go to his apartment and see if there's any clues as to where he's gone." The water mage clapped her hands together in excitement "Thank you so much Lucy, I'm sorry I always called you my love rival, I'm so happy for you and Natsu. Now I know you and Gray can never be together, this makes me very happy."

Lucy rolled her eyes but smiled at her, she was a very weird woman but she was a good friend. Especially to Gray, not that he ever appreciated it. If he turns out to actually be in trouble, he owes Juvia big time and needs to be a lot nicer to her. Lucy would make sure of it.

"Okay, this is Gray's apartment." Juvia stated as they walked up the steps to his front door. Immediately Lucy knew something wasn't right. There was ice fragments all over the floor, the sign of a struggle made by the ice mage. Then there was the splintered door.

Lucy gestured towards the door in disbelief "Juvia, you can't honestly tell me that you didn't notice his door was like this when you came here this morning, did you actually check inside or just peek through the window?"

The bluenette tinted her fingers together and looked at the floor awkwardly "Well I can't actually get into his apartment, I don't have a key. I just looked through my usual place." She pointed at a tree situated below the apartment that was a few feet away. _'Of course she had a vantage point for creeping on the poor guy. Except this time it might have paid off.'_

"Well the door's broken anyway Juvia so let's just go in. I'm sure he won't mind." Lucy pushed the door forward, it was met with resistance. She kicked it to try and move whatever was in the way. A loud hiss of pain and "Fucking hell can you piss off."

She slipped through the small gap there was and saw that it was indeed Gray lying on the ground in front of the door, holding his side tightly. Blood was seeping between his fingers from the gaping wound and dripping onto the floor.

"Gray are you alright? What the hell happened to you?" She pushed Juvia's head back through the gap and slammed it shut "Nothing to see Juvia, Gray's going to be fine I promise. Run back to the guild though and grab Wendy if she's there, if she isn't, get Porlyusica here as soon as possible."

A squeal of annoyance sounded from the water mage but she obeyed Lucy's orders "Gray I'll be back soon I promise. Look after my love for me please Lucy."

Gray coughed out a laugh but it sounded more like he was choking. Lucy knelt down to the floor, pulled off her jacket and pressed it against his side to try and control the blood flow but the material was soon sopping with his life force.

Grey's face had now gone, well grey. It was a sickly color, he was losing too much blood, it was all too much. _'What can I do? I need to do something, I need-'_

Her eyes widened as a crazy idea entered her mind, she looked down at her hands and knew it was the only option. 'This best work, Mavis give me strength' She placed her hand over Grey's icy cold one and squeezed "Gray this is going to hurt like a bitch, scream if you need to, break my hand if that will make it more bearable. I need to cauterize the wound, I'm really sorry about this."

His glossy eyes widened in shock at what she was about to do, he tried to shuffle away but Lucy pinned him to the floor. "Lucy no pl-" A loud girlish scream left Grey's lips as Lucy pressed her flaming hand against the wound. Actually managing to summon a flame in itself was a miracle as she didn't have a clue how to manifest a flame. She just tried to adopt Natsu's mindset and bam, flame. His fiery attitude was all she needed.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry." Lucy chanted her apologies as she pressed her scorching hand against his skin, the smell was repulsive but it did what it needed to and stopped the blood flow. Extinguishing the flame, she held his face in hand and tried to keep him awake "Gray you need to stay with me until Juvia gets back with help, please stay awake."

"Luce." He wheezed out with the last of his breath "They're coming for-" His head fell back as he lost consciousness.

* * *

"He's sustained a deep wound to his side but thanks to your quick thinking Lucy, you managed to control the blood flow and save his life in the process so well done child." Porlyusica nodded at Lucy, a small show of respect for her actions. They had gotten Gray back to the hospital ward, Wendy had healed him almost completely. Except the wound on his side that she had cauterized with her hand was still there, well a burnt image of her hand was. _'He's going to be so angry that I scarred his body with a hand print . Who knows, maybe he'll find it funny, it'll be Juvia that's mad.'_

"I can't believe you've marked his perfect skin, you said you'd keep him safe." Juvia exclaimed, kneeling next to his bed side. Lucy shook her head _'Dramatic as always, knew she'd mention it.'_

Before Lucy could get out a word, Porlyusica slapped Juvia around the back of her head, silencing her cries. "Be quiet you fool. She saved his life, you should be thanking her."

"Thank you Lucy." Gray croaked out, he winced as he attempted to sit up. Natsu stormed into the room and pointed at the ice mage "You idiot, what do you think you're doing getting yourself into trouble without me there to keep an eye on you?" He pointed his thumb at his mate and scowled "You're worse than her."

Gray smiled up his oldest friend and held his hand up for Natsu to grasp in his. He sat on his bed side and squeezed it tightly. "Okay so who kicked your ass then?"

His face dropped and he frowned "I don't know who they were but I heard them speaking. Someone's after Lucy, I don't know who and I don't know why. All I heard them say was her name and now that someone had changed, they couldn't let anyone get in their way."

"Changed? Lucy hasn't changed at all." Natsu seemed to laugh it off but Lucy's hand flew to her scales on her neck that were slowly moving further down her skin. "Natsu, that's not true. Are you the first dragon slayer to find their mate in Fiore? Have Sting or Rogue found theirs?"

Natsu shook his head "I don't think they have, do you think it's something to do with that?"

"I think I might know what's going on, why someone might want your mate Natsu." Porlyusica interjected, everyone turned to face Fairy Tail's healer.

"It's simple enough, there's a cult of people that obsess with the powers of dragon slayers, as we all know, when a dragon slayer chooses their mate, their powers get passed on to them too. These people believe that a way to inherit a dragon slayers magical ability is to eat the heart of their mate."

Silence. Soon everyone's eyes were fixed on Lucy. She gulped loudly and laughed "Well that's quite stupid isn't it?"


	15. Chapter 15

All hell broke loose once the word got out that a crazy cult were wanting to cut out Lucy's heart and serve it up for dinner. Natsu had her under lock and key, putting her on an unofficial house arrest, under the pretense that they were just spending romantic days together hidden in his house. All they had done was play card games that it appeared Natsu really did suck at.

Where's the fun in beating someone who can barely play the game?

After three hours of playing go fish, Lucy had had enough and escaped to the bathroom. Making sure to lock the door, she refused to let her boisterous mate come in with her. His whiny voice penetrated the thick wooden door, irritating her ears. "Luce let me in, we can share a bath."

Lucy rolled her eyes as she started to run the hot water to near scolding levels. Just the way she liked it. Ever since she had taken on Natsu's fire slayer magic, she had needed to get the water heated up even more by the pink haired hot head to get it to penetrate her skin.

 _'Maybe I'll try it myself today, it shouldn't be that hard to boil some water with my flames.'_

"Natsu we're not kids, I want the bath to myself, if you want one too you can wait until I'm finished. I need some alone time."

 _'Because you're driving me crazy.'_

She loved Natsu Dragneel to bits, she wouldn't have accepted being his mate for life if she didn't love him an ungodly amount but sometimes he could be a little bit overwhelming and a little bit of Lucy time was needed.

She heard his footsteps retreat down the hallway and she breathed out a sigh of relief. She half expected him to kick the door down to get to her. It had happened too many times to count in her house, she was constantly footing bills to replace broken doors or shattered windows that he had smashed because he thought it was unusual that her window wasn't open for him so he had to get into her house somehow right?

Turning off the squeaky tap, she examined the water and dipped her finger into the bath. Normally it would have felt blisteringly hot but to her now, it felt tepid. Her skin was getting immune to heat and she really wasn't pleased about it.

Did that mean that she wouldn't be able to feel the warmth of the sun if she wanted to spend the day at the beach sunbathing? She hoped to Mavis that it didn't work like that.

After trying and failing to summon a flame, she huffed in defeat. Feeling too stubborn to ask Natsu for his help, she yanked the plug out of the drain and stormed out of the bathroom to confront him about their current situation and how unhappy she was about it.

Lucy found him sat in the middle of his empty living room, they still hadn't replaced the sofa that he had burnt to a crisp and their bed had been moved into his vacant bedroom, for a little bit of privacy from a certain nosy cat.

They weren't sleeping separately anymore so there was no need for him to use his hammock, he had given it to Happy for him to use when he wasn't staying at Charle's house. There were several pots of paints surrounding the dragon slayer and he had smears of pink paint up his arm. _'What is he doing now? I knew I should've been worried because he had been quiet for so long.'_

Natsu turned his head to look at Lucy, a gleeful look on his face as he gestured towards whatever he was doing with a mashed looking paintbrush. When she approached the object he was painting her heart stopped. It was similar to his sign for his house that had his and Happy's name on. Except now, it had Lucy's too.

Her name was written in a very delicate pink script that wasn't something she could imagine Natsu being capable of doing. If he had done it so perfectly, why the hell was the paintbrush so mangled?

"Natsu, Lucy and Happy." She read it aloud and had to hold back a sob at how sweet and heartwarming it was to see. Natsu shrugged his shoulders and smiled brightly at his mate.

"Well, I figured you'd stay with me now that we're mated, that is I would love it if you would stay here with me? I'll sort out getting all of your stuff from your old house." He looked outside his window at all of the open space surrounding his house and grinned.

"I've been thinking of expanding this place for a while. Whaddya say Luce?" He held his hand out for her to take, which she gladly did and fell into his arms. "Under one condition." Natsu nodded, eager to do whatever it took to keep her with him. "We need to leave this place, today. Expanding in the future is all good and well but right now it's tiny and I need room to breathe. Please can we go out and do something?"

Natsu shook his head aggressively. "No, we've been over this. It's not safe for you out there. I can't lose you Lucy, don't you understand that? I honestly don't know what I'd do without you. We need to stay here where I can protect you." Lucy's mind was moving a mile a minute trying to think of a way that she could leave this house while still pleasing Natsu's possessive nature. There was only thing she could think of.

"You aren't going to lose me. How about we go out with everyone from Fairy Tail? I'll stick by you all day but if we're surrounded by the most powerful mages in all of Fiore I can't imagine I'd be in any danger. That would probably be safer than being here with only one powerful mage."

She stifled a laugh at his expression, his eye was slowly twitching at her words, because he knew deep down that she was right and he was wrong.

Here they were secluded in the middle of a forest, no matter how powerful Natsu thought he was when it came to protecting Lucy, he couldn't let his ego get in the way. _'I think seeing how beat up Gray had gotten from them was a wake up call for him, if they took down Gray so easily, they must be a formidable opponent.'_

He hung his head back and let out a roar like groan. Pushing his hands into his hair and sharply pulling on the pink strands, he straightened up and walked over to open the cottage door. "Alright we can go but you're going to be attached to me all day."

Lucy closed the door and giggled. "Natsu, you need to clean up a bit." Looking down at his body, he huffed again and marched to the bathroom. He was only in his boxers and covered in pink paint. Lucy fist pumped at her first victory against Natsu. 'Lucy 1, Natsu 0.'

* * *

"You're going to a fair? Oh no Luce we can't go there. That's the most common place for people to get kidnapped. Plus the thought of all of those rides makes me want to puke." Natsu had tied his scarf around Lucy's wrist when they had left the cottage and then tied it around his also so they were literally attached. She felt like she was a toddler that liked to wander off so had to be literally tethered to her parent.

"Natsu, it will be fine. It's a very compact fair ground. Pretty much everyone in Fairy Tail is going. Have some fun." Mira patted Natsu's spiky hair and walked over to her sister and brother who were excitedly talking about something. Lucy turned back to face her mate and raised her hands up in a prayer motion. "Please please, I love fairs. I promise I'll be good."

"Well if she's promised she'll be good, how can you say no." A rough voice spoke behind her, she looked for the source and saw a pale chest and raven hair. "Gray, you're up." Lucy lunged for the ice mage and wrapped her arms around his shoulders, pulling him into a tight embrace. Natsu was yanked sideways at the motion because of their scarf attachment and fell at Grays feet.

"Yeah, nice to see you ice breath." Natsu mumbled as he got to his feet and yanked Lucy back towards him. When Lucy returned to his side, he grumbled about how her scent was going to be off all day now because Gray had rubbed himself all over her.

"I did not rub myself over her flame brain. Grow up, I'm not a dog." Gray's eyes went wide as he felt damp arms wrap around his waist from behind, Juvia's form appeared behind him as she materialized from her water form and gave Lucy a death stare over his shoulder. Lucy glared back, unaware that licks of flame were starting to trail from her fingers.

"Love rival." Juvia hissed, a spark appearing in her eye. Lucy took a step forward, but was pulled back into a pair of warm strong arms. Natsu pulled her flaming dainty hand up to his face and sucked the flames from her skin. "Calm down. She's only joking around. We'll go to the fair." He pressed a quick kiss against her warm lips and smiled. "Love you."

"Okay guys, we're leaving now. Everyone get a buddy to stay with the entire trip, we don't want anyone getting lost." Mira was standing on top of the bar top pointing at people to pair up and directing those who already had to leave.

"Mira, we're staying in Magnolia, I very much doubt anyone is going to get lost." Laxus held his hand out to help her get down after he had stated a very valid point. "You never know Laxus, you never know. Let's go have some fun."

* * *

Lucy clocked onto exactly where she wanted to go as soon as they set foot on the fair ground. "Natsu it's so beautiful." She yanked him into the darkened room and exclaimed at all of the machines surrounding her. "Okay we need to get some coins, right now." Lucy had an addiction when it came to arcades, she wasn't a huge fan of rides but it was guaranteed that if there was a fair, there would be an arcade too.

She was the queen of the grabbing machines and she had hundreds of plush toys stuffed into her closet at home to prove it.

"Luce I want to go and get some food." Natsu whined as she pulled him further into the arcade. "Well you should've thought about that before you tied me to you. I want to play in here. We'll get food later."

"Lucy over here." Lisanna was waving at her from the far corner of the arcade, she was already surrounded by prizes. Lucy's eyes twinkled as she ran over to the take over mage and gestured towards all of toys she had won. "You're amazing, teach me your ways." Lucy bowed her head at Lisanna and forced Natsu to do the same, much to his displeasure.

"She's a man when it comes to arcade games." Elfman was playing a shooting game behind them and failing miserably. The giant words 'Game Over.' appeared on the game's screen as his character was being devoured by zombies. He chucked the toy gun back into it's holster and walked over to the trio of mages.

"Hey Elfman, why don't you try this one?" Lucy gestured towards the easiest game she could think of, the dance machine. She could imagine Elfman breaking some awesome moves on it. "It's for kids though." He placed his hand on the machine as it roared to life and played a extremely girly song as the machine was obviously created for teenage girls to play.

"Oh hell yes, I love this song." Hopping over the side of the machines barrier, Elfman activated the machine and started to dance along to the song, the machine started to quake unsteadily, struggling to deal with the ungodly amount of weight it was having to support but that was a problem for the future. Natsu stared in awe at the machine and pulled the scarf so Lucy would follow.

"I want to play that one Luce." She giggled at her mate and nodded. "Go ahead, look I'm taking this scarf off. I'll keep it around my neck but you can't play with it attached to me." Natsu looked skeptical but allowed her small fingers to loosen the hold on the material on his wrist. "I'm going to be over there with Lisanna."

She pointed to the grabber machines in the corner, where she could see the girl had already won another toy. "I promise I won't leave, you can see me from here. I need to go catch up with her, she's got so many toys already. Love you pinky."

Lucy tied her golden hair up into a high ponytail and wrapped Natsu's scarf around her neck, covering her burning mating mark almost from sight. A few crimson scales below her ear were visible, but only if someone were looking for it.

"Right Strauss, ready?" Lucy fist bumped Lisanna and they got to work clearing out the machines for all the toys they were worth.


	16. Chapter 16

**A/N I am truly sorry for the delay on this chapter, I have no excuse except for having to work and getting the new final fantasy game and absolutely falling in love with it. Thank you for your patience!**

 _Ding Ding Ding Ding._

"Oh my gosh." Lisanna's eyes widened in pure awe at the huge amount of tickets that were now free flowing out of one of the machines next to her, currently occupied by Lucy. The blonde had a cocky smile on her face as she knelt down on the worn carpeted floor of the arcade they had been in for the past three hours and collected her prize.

"Come to mama." Lucy grinned widely as she secured the tickets with an elastic band and tucked them inside her bra. "Safest place for those babies." Lucy winked at the takeover mage and skipped over to the dance machine Natsu had worked to the bone. She was surprised the thing was still in one piece.

Elfman and Natsu had been dancing their little tushies off all day, trying to beat each other at the game and from the looks of it, they were equally matched.

"Natsu, I'm just going to go and cash in my tickets. I'll just be outside. Okay?" His eyes were focused intently on the screen in front of him as it gave him directions to follow. "Yeah yeah, okay."

 _'He didn't hear a word I said.'_

Spinning on her heels, Lucy made her way to the exit with Lisanna hot on her trail. "Hey Lucy wait, you can't go anywhere by yourself. Be more cautious."

Her blue eyes scanned the surrounding area, looking suspicious and wary of everybody and anybody that was near them. "You don't know where these monsters could be waiting. You have to be on guard at all times."

Rolling her eyes, Lucy approached the prize desk and examined all of the objects she could purchase. Something giant and red caught her eye, something that cost a measly 100 tickets. Bouncing in excitement, Lucy pointed at the giant, plush red dragon that was hanging from the ceiling of the booth, she knew that Natsu would love it.

"Excuse me." Lucy said, trying to catch the attention of the person manning the stand.

"Could I purchase that dragon there?" The gentleman behind the counter looked extremely pleased with himself as he pulled the plush toy down and placed it on the counter, ready for Lucy to take.

"Here you go Miss, that will be 100 tickets. I hope you enjoy it." Pulling out the wad of tickets, she pointed to a few more objects in the booth and bought them with the remainder of her winnings. Lisanna frowned at the lack of prizes left after Lucy had cleared it out and tucked her tickets back inside her purse.

"I'll save these for another day then. C'mon, I'll carry the dragon for you." The man brow furrowed as Lisanna's hands met with the soft material of the toy. "Thank you very much." Lucy bowed slightly and walked away, her arms overflowing with random toys and trinkets.

Sighing deeply, Lucy smiled as she walked along side Lisanna. "I really do love fairs. Let's go get Natsu and Elfman, I need to take these things home." Lisanna smiled. "Well, do you want me to run over to your cottage. I'll put the dragon on the bed so you can surprise him with it? I'll take a couple of your prizes too so you don't drop anything"

Lisanna laughed as she plucked a few toys out of Lucy's arms and turned to leave. "Besides, you're going to have a tough enough time getting Natsu off that damn machine, good luck with that Luce."

"That's so sweet. Thank you Lisanna." The takeover ran off into the distance with the crimson dragon stuffed under her arm. Lucy hoped that Natsu was going to like it, it looked similar to Igneel, that was why she had gotten it.

He obviously didn't have any photos of his adoptive father but maybe this toy could be a reminder of him.

"Natsu, time to go." Lucy shouted over the loud music booming through the building

Natsu hopped over the side of the dance machine and attempted to take all of the stuff Lucy was carrying. She pulled her arms tighter around her prizes and frowned.

"No, these aren't for you. Your present is waiting at home." Natsu pouted. "I was just trying to hold stuff for you, that's what a good boyfriend does isn't it? They hold things for their girlfriends?" Lucy's eyes softened at his sweet words.

Instead of trying to take the objects out of her arms again, Natsu simply pulled her into his arms and walked out of the arcade. "See you later Elfman. We'll continue this match another day." Natsu called over his shoulder but the takeover mage didn't hear a word as he continued his assault on the poor machine.

* * *

"I had a great day Natsu, it's been so much fun." Natsu nuzzled his head against Lucy's neck and sighed. "It was fun wasn't it. Thanks for forcing me to let us come. I guess I was just being paranoid, as usu-"

 _'Why is the cottage door open?'_

Natsu inhaled deeply through his nose and frowned. "I can smell Lisanna, wasn't she with you all day? Why is she in the house?" As they walked through the open door, the youngest Strauss sibling could be seen sprawled across the floor, the dragon toy still grasped in her hands. Her face was even paler than usual and spasms were travelling through her body.

A ringing tone from Lisanna's lacrima was echoing through the quiet house.

"What's wrong with her Natsu? Is she okay?" Placing Lucy down onto her feet, she abandoned all of her prizes on the floor and rushed over to Lisanna's form but was held back. "Natsu please, she needs help. Do something."

His warm hand squeezed hers as he pulled her back behind his back. "Lucy, something doesn't smell right in here, stay behind me and please do not move."

Obeying his orders, Lucy stayed behind him in the exact same spot as Natsu approached Lisanna's twitching body. His fingers ghosted over the top of the dragon toy to reach her. As his skin came into contact with the plush teddy, a spark floated from the toy and rippled through Natsu's body.

He fell to the floor alongside the takeover mage and started to fit. Crimson scales started to pop through his skin throughout his body, his eyes turned into slits and his teeth became long and sharp, poking out over his bottom lip.

Arching his body up, his eyes darted around the room and narrowed on Lucy, an air of desperation surrounding the dragon slayer. "Luce, duck." He choked out. Lucy spun her head and narrowly missed a punch aimed at the back of her head.

"Natsu." She screamed as his body gave up as he collapsed to the floor, his dragon like features not returning under his skin. She could feel his life force getting weaker and weaker. It was painful and she could feel her life force leaving along with his.

"You're a noisy little bitch ain't ya. It'll be all over soon, don't worry." The attacked pricked her neck with something that filled her veins with fire and made her vision become blurry and dark.

"Natsu." She whispered as she fell onto her knees, her numb fingers reaching out for his but just falling short. The kidnapper let out a hollow laugh and pressed his foot against the side of Lucy's face, pushing her closer towards Natsu.

"You want to say goodbye? Might as well. It'll be the last time you see him. In this life anyway." Now being close enough, she stroked the side of his soft face and squeezed her eyes shut, just wishing that this whole nightmare would just end already.

"Lights out princess." A heavy boot kicked the back of her head and knocked her into oblivion.

* * *

"I thought made it perfectly clear that if anybody was to cause any harm onto this young lady's body, I would personally see to it that they would never see the light of day again." Lucy could hear a pained whimper, very close to the side of her head. Keeping her eyes firmly shut, feigning sleep, she waited.

"Please sir, I can ex-" Another pained whimper, a sickening crunch and then silence. A warm feeling spread across Lucy's cheek, something warm that was spreading further down her body.

Unable to fight the urge to peek at what was going on, she popped open one eye and let out an almighty scream at what was in front of her face. The male's face was pale and twisted in agony from his last moment alive.

The warm feeling she had felt on her skin was the man's blood oozing from his sliced and broken neck. She tried to scoot away from the man's corpse but felt herself chained to the very spot. "I am sorry my beloved, we have to take extra precautions while having you here." Her eyes looked above the corpse and felt pure dread sink into her very bones.

"You make this foul man's blood taste so much sweeter. Oh we're going to have so much fun together Miss Heartfilia, just you wait."

She could form no words as her captor pressed a kiss against her mating mark located on her neck. He kept his lips pressed there for far too long, it made her feel dirty. He was not worthy of touching her or it. "Get off." She managed to finally growl out. Her throat was becoming scratchy and hot.

"Yes, do show me what you can do. Your eyes have gone a fantastic shade of yellow. You truly are getting his powers." The man grasped her cheeks and turned her face from side to side, inspecting her skin.

"Still no more progression on your scale formation. Usually they start to appear on the cheekbones by now. No matter, we'll get your transformation moving on faster with the help of this."

Pressing a hard kiss against her lips, the man pushed his tongue into her mouth and forced a pill down her throat. She felt the licks of flames crawling from her fingers and caressing her body. "That's it, that's what I want to see. Wow it does work fast." His eyes gleamed at the spectacle before him.

Lucy fell forward onto all fours, feeling herself slipping, giving into the beast that lived inside Natsu and was now living inside of her.

"Enough." He exclaimed and just like that, Lucy returned back to normal. No flames, no scales, completely normal. Falling back against the cold, blood covered floor, she huddled into a ball and started to sob. "What the hell do you want with me?"

He caressed her head and turned to leave, the deceased male now thrown over his shoulder. "I want to make you great. And then I will kill you and make myself great. Do get some rest, busy day tomorrow."


	17. Chapter 17

"He's been unconscious for a week, what the hell is going on inside that thick skull of his?" Gray was pacing the floor of Fairy Tail's infirmary, leaving a trail of icy footsteps behind him.

When his anger, or any strong emotion, got the better of him, he couldn't control his magic and he unintentionally allowed it to leak out.

Wendy was sat at Natsu's bedside, using her healing magic to do her daily check up on his condition. But everyday, the results were the same.

"There's nothing wrong with him Gray, he's in perfect health. His organs are all fine and he has no wounds."

Porlyusica tapped the back of Wendy's head and tutted.

"Silly girl, you're so naive. Didn't you say when he first came in that his brain activity was high?" Wendy nodded, a big pout on her face as she held the back of her head where the older woman had struck her.

"Well there, you have your answer. He's in there, he's just busy. Natsu will return to us but only when he is ready and not a second sooner. Maybe you should stop wasting your time here and help search for Miss Heartfilia?"

It had been a week since the attack on Natsu and the disappearance of Lucy. Charle, Happy and Wendy were returning to Natsu's cottage when they found him and Lisanna unconscious on the floor.

They had rushed the pair to Fairy Tail and got them checked over by Porlyusica. Lisanna had awoken later on that day, feeling extremely nauseous but non the worse for wear.

Natsu however, was staying sound asleep.

Gray lowered his head so it was next to Natsu's ear and hoped that the rumor that people who were in coma's could hear everything that was going on in the outside world around their body and gently whispered.

"Wake the fuck up flamebrain. Lucy's in danger. She needs **you**."

* * *

"You need to stay still sweetheart, otherwise this will hurt quite a bit." Lucy's brain felt like it was full of tar, she couldn't think, she couldn't move. She could only watch with wide, tear filled eyes as the man who was keeping her captive cut away a portion of her mating mark.

He had injected something into the food she had eaten that had the ability to shut off all of her body's pain receptors, leaving her horribly numb and completely at his mercy.

 _'I feel so violated. How can someone think doing something like this is acceptable? I'm not a test subject that you can poke and prod, I'm a human being.'_

As Lucy tried with all her might to beg him to stop, a small choked whimper escaped her lips, causing the man's scalpel to slip in his grasp and slice a portion of her non scaled skin.

His face twisted in rage as he threw the metal instrument onto the floor and let out a heavy sigh.

"You silly girl, now you're bleeding all down yourself." He took in a deep calming breath and attempted to compose himself.

"I guess I've got enough for what I need." He placed the small section of scales in his palm and grinned as he gazed at Lucy's trembling lip.

He lowered his head so their noses were almost touching. She wanted to pull away, to scream, anything. But she was still immobilized. His icy blue eyes examined her face as he tutted.

"It's a real shame, you're such a beautiful little thing. I'll miss seeing your face once this is all over." Running his finger down the side of her cheek, she watched as his pupils started to dilate as they lowered to look at her chapped lips.

"G-go away." She spat out, her tongue was starting to respond to her now and the spell he was under suddenly broke as he yanked himself away from her body.

"You're a little minx Miss Heartfilia. A siren. Well I'll be off now, the numbing agent should wear off fully within the next hour or so." His eyes gazed at her wounded neck.

"If you've gained the dragon slayer's healing abilities, like you should have done, that should be healed soon. Don't worry, your scales should come back too. I just need them more than you do right now, important tests to be done my dear."

She bared her teeth at the mention of her scales being removed. He found this highly amusing and let out a hearty laugh.

"Feisty aren't you? I really wish that I could hurry up and get this whole thing over with, if I have you here for too long, I might just not want to get rid of you."

"If you're going to kill me, just do it." Her tongue still felt fat but her words were coming more freely now. The man started to gather up all of his utensils, not looking at her anymore.

"It's not as easy as cutting you open and taking your magic. Your slayer powers have to be at their maximum potential otherwise we'd be missing out on some of it but we couldn't leave you with your mate any longer. We either took you then or lost the opportunity."

She frowned at how casually he was talking about how he was going to kill her. This guy was seriously messed up.

"It seems that something is stopping your powers from reaching their peak, that is why I need to examine the only part of you that has fully changed."

Walking to the door, he knocked twice and it was opened for him, he looked over his shoulder and frowned, a thoughtful look on his face.

"Your powers aren't fully emerging though, it's almost as if something's absorbing the magical energy that should be building up inside you."

Then he was gone. Leaving her alone. She stayed on the steel table that she had for a bed for hours after the feeling had come back to her body. Staring at the ceiling, she cried until her eyes were dry and her heart hurt.

Eventually, for the first time since she had been there, sleep claimed her. And sweet dreams helped sooth her aching soul.

"Lucy?" Natsu's voice sounded behind her and then warm arms encircled her. The earthy, musky smell that could only be from him surrounded her. Leaning her head backwards, she didn't care that this was just a dream. It felt real. Real enough.

"Hi Natsu. If I'd of known I'd be able to dream of you I'd of allowed myself to sleep a lot sooner. Speak to me, I miss hearing your voice."

The pair slipped down onto the grassy floor where her dream had taken them. It was a beautiful sunny day, a gentle breeze was tickling her bare arms as she lay in between Natsu's legs and let him play with her hair.

"Where are you baby? I need to know." She closed her eyes and slowly inhaled through her nose. "I'm right here with you, that's all that matters. Just be quiet and hold me."

"No." His voice was filled with urgency. "Where are you, in the real world? Anything. Did you see anything when you were kidnapped? Just try and think."

His fingers were quickly working through her golden locks, she could sense the anxiety radiating off him.

"This is my dream Natsu, I don't want to talk about it."

Yanking her body up, her eyes widened at his face staring at hers. He looked pale and terrified. "Lucy, you're disappearing. Where have they taken you?"

She tried to speak but the words didn't come. Her body fell through the floor and out of Natsu's grasp and hit something scorching hot. The dream had caused her powers to materialize in her real body and had made the table reach boiling temperatures.

The lights were off in her room which meant that the people who had kidnapped her were watching her. One of them had said to truly see the beauty of her fire, it had to be in the darkness, then it was truly beautiful.

But what wasn't beautiful was that when she stopped using the magic, her body became unaccustomed to the heat that came with it so falling asleep on a metal table was not ideal.

When she had first woken after being kidnapped, she had only been clothed in a knee length hospital like gown, that was now extremely singed from the flames that her body had created.

"Stop looking at me you freaks." Lucy shouted at the empty room, her voice reverberated off the walls. she knew they were somewhere, watching. Always watching.

She could feel the magic roaring under her skin, it was begging to be released. Natsu was right, when your emotions were running high, your magic was that much more stronger and even more unpredictable.

"Just leave me alone." She whispered to herself as she huddled herself in the corner of the room, trying to make herself as small as possible, maybe she would just disappear.

* * *

"Why couldn't she have just stayed for ten more seconds, just ten more seconds and I could have told her 'Hey Luce, this is really me and I need to know where you're being kept so I can save you.' but no. She has to fit the blonde haired stereotype for the first time in her life and be an absolute idiot."

Natsu was aware of everything that was going on around his body in the real world, he could hear every word that was said and feel every sensation going through his body.

It tickled like crazy when Wendy sent pulses of her magic though his body to check for damage. He giggled like a little school girl every time she did it.

His guild members kept talking to his body and telling him that Lucy needed him to get up, he already knew that and if he could wake up, he would. But something was stopping him from leaving this state of unconsciousness.

His consciousness had taken form and was keeping him in the grassy area that Lucy had suddenly materialized in minutes before. Natsu couldn't believe his eyes at first but soon remembered that they were connected, mind and soul.

It would only make sense that he was calling out to her and her body responded by stitching their dreams together as a way of communication.

Then she acted like a complete air head, thought it was all a dream and then went and woke up. Leaving him with no clue as to where she was and no hope of seeing her again.

"You're pathetic, do you know that?" A raspy voice was speaking into his ear. He batted it away but came into contact with skin. Natsu glanced over his shoulder and saw himself. But with more claws, scales and way more teeth.

"Are you me?" Natsu said to, well himself. Except this was the part of Natsu that controlled his draconic instincts. The one that took control of him sometimes.

His alter ego rolled it's slitted eyes and nodded. "Sadly so. Look, let's get straight to the point. I won't let you wake up until you accept me into your body, fully."

Natsu shook his head. "Absolutely not, you're an asshole that tries to take over my body and hump Lucy whenever you get the chance."

Grasping the human projection of Natsu, his dragon side punched him in the face and threw him onto the floor. "Look you weak ass piece of shit, if we don't merge together, Lucy will die. You won't get to her in time. You need my help. I can track her. Accept that and we can move on."

Natsu stared at his other half and begrudgingly agreed. If it woke him up, he'd do anything.

"You're an asshole." Natsu mumbled.

* * *

Back on the outside of Natsu's body, Gray was taking Porlyusica's advice and go and help search for Lucy. Juvia trailing not far behind him, following him around like a loyal dog. The ice make mage was long used to this strange tradition.

Natsu's body began to slowly transform. "Um Gray, something's happening to Natsu." Wendy's frightened voice pulled him back to the fire slayer's bedside. He watched in awe as the man's features started to change.

His hands became clawed talons, his canines grew in length and were poking out of his mouth, crimson scaled portions of skin were appearing up and down the slayer's body.

It wasn't as overwhelming as when he had changed in the past. Gray leant over Natsu's face which, in hindsight, probably wasn't the best move.

His eyes shot open, revealing the yellow slit irises that were associated with Natsu's dragon alter ego.

"I'm ready to go now."

Gray was floored. He started to shake the dragon slayers by his shoulders.

"Oh it's okay as long as you're ready? Natsu it's been a week, Mavis only knows what's happening to Lucy."

He stared unflinchingly at Grey's face and bared his fangs. "You're a good friend of mine Gray but if you touch me again, I'll burn that pretty little face off."

He scoffed at his words. "Yeah yeah, whatever. just get up then moron and let's go help the search party."

Natsu got to his feet and frowned. "I'm not joining the search party, I and I alone will be looking for my mate. Stay out of this asshole."

He stared after his friend for a second as he pulled off the various tubes that were connected to his body and started to walk unsteadily out of the room. Gray stormed after him and put his arm around his body, supporting his weight.

"You idiot, you haven't been conscious for seven days, you're going to weak. You need to eat something and then we can go. Try and think logically for once. You'll be no good to saving Lucy if you can't take out the bad guys first."

"Fire chicken please." Natsu mumbled.


	18. Chapter 18

"Here we go, fresh out of the fridge and made especially for you. A nice tasty salad." Mira pushed a small bowl full of leafy greens, topped with a small cube of cheese across the bar, heading towards Natsu's eager looking face.

When the dragon slayer realized that the food inside the bowl was for him and that he was not getting his fire chicken, he clenched the wooden bar top between his clawed fingers, shredding it like paper.

"Where's my food Mira? I didn't ask for this shit." Natsu's eyes widened a fraction as the takeover mage before him was suddenly enveloped in a purple glow that only appeared when she was using the powers of her Satan soul.

She pulled a 'try me' face as she flicked the bowl forward a fraction more with a clawed finger that rivaled the sharpness of his own. "Sweetie, fire chicken is too much for your stomach to handle after having food through a tube for a week."

Mira's claws pinched Natsu's chin as she slowly pulled his jaw open and popped a green leaf onto his tongue. She narrowed her eyes at his yellow ones and smacked her teeth together, mimicking what she wanted him to do.

"Chew." She said in a deep growl. Natsu's eyes stared into hers as he ground his teeth together and swallowed.

Seeming satisfied, she released her hold on his chin and continued on her work behind the bar. The purple hue surrounding her slowly melted away, leaving Mira as her regular self and sealing her Satan soul back inside her body.

Natsu was always shocked at Mira's magical capabilities, it was so easy to forget how powerful she was. She hid it well behind her gentle nature.

"You're scary sometimes, do you know that?" Natsu grumbled as he shoved the vegetation into his mouth, even though it tasted disgusting, he knew that she was right. Eating a huge meal would be a big mistake, he couldn't save Lucy if he was vomiting his soul out.

Stopping mid bite, Natsu pushed himself off from the bar and made his way to the guild's exit. He needed to start sniffing out his mate, he'd spent enough time here.

"Natsu, you need to finish your food." Mira's worried voice trailed after him but he ignored her this time and continued forward. Gray placed some money on the bar and walked after him.

"Don't worry Mira, I've got my eye on him." Gray frowned at the retreating form of the dragon slayer."I've always got his back."

"If you're coming with me, you've got to keep up. I'm not playing around now, finding Lucy is all that matters to me, so you best not get in my way." Gray stared at the face of his friend and blanched slightly at his ferocious expression.

Ever since his dragon instincts had awakened, he was truly like a different person. Vicious and cruel, except when it came to Lucy. Then he was gentle and loving.

Even before the two of them had become linked together, Lucy had always been his whole world. Losing her was never an option.

"I should be saying the same to you, she's one of my closest friends, I want to save her too." Natsu's fist grasped the material of Gray's shirt as he lifted him off the ground. Snarling in his face, Gray flinched at the stranger staring back at him. Was this actually Natsu?

"So why didn't any of you go looking for her while I was unconscious? You're lucky I know she's still alive otherwise I'd be putting you all through what they'd put her through." Throwing him onto the floor, Natsu sped off into the distance, leaving a trail of dust in his wake.

"I'm always one step behind this idiot." Gray pushed himself up and ran after the dragon slayer. Natsu was sniffing the air, desperately trying to catch Lucy's scent. From what Gray could see, he wasn't getting anything.

"Maybe we should go back to your cottage, isn't that where she got snatched?" Twisting his neck to look at Gray, he the switched his gaze to the floor and frowned. He was clearly disappointed at not thinking of starting the search there himself.

"Yeah, okay." The two quickly made their way across Magnolia, and once they arrived on Natsu's land, the dragon slayer caught onto two scents. "Yeah, I can smell Lucy and somebody else." He pushed the air out of his nostrils and made a retching noise.

"The other one smells, oh shit, it smells like shit."

Gray let out a short laugh as Natsu struggled to breathe through the awful stench that only he could smell, his scaled fingers were pointing to the west. "That way." He gasped out.

It was the first time the ice make mage had gotten a proper look at Natsu's features. One of his eyes was normal, whereas the other was the one associated with his dragon alter ego, had a yellow iris and a slitted pupil. Had he somehow made a truce with his overpowering side?

"What are you staring at?" Natsu said gruffly.

"Nothing." Gray responded, avoiding eye contact with him. He could ask him questions once Lucy was safe and sound.

* * *

As they began their daily routine of removing some of her scales, extracting some of her blood and just basically torturing her. Lucy found it humorous at how badly they were struggling to get a fraction of her dragon scales away from her neck.

"I don't think they want to go with you professor." She said sarcastically. The whole time she had been trapped in this god forsaken place, she had been using it as an excuse to practice her new magic. As they had set up magical barriers, stopping any magic from being used there except for her dragon slayer magic, she was truly on her own.

After days of practicing, she could now manifest her flames on command, maintaining them was another matter altogether. Her body was weak and fatigued so her magical energy was next to nothing. The professor was extremely interested in why her magic was being sapped away. Frankly, so was she.

In other situations when she had been trapped in one place or another, Loke had force opened his gate and helped her escape but that simply wasn't an option here. She had to rely on herself.

Dropping the forceps that he had been using, the professor, as Lucy had been told to call him, looked slightly ruffled as his hands went to the under side of the table she was lying on and pulled up the restraints that were always hiding underneath.

The smug smile that had appeared on her face soon disappeared and she started to struggle. He easily managed to overpower Lucy's strength and successfully attached the shackles to her body.

"Since extracting your scales is proving impossible now, I'm going to bring in our special doctor in to come and check you over." It was almost like he loved how much he could scare Lucy, he fed off it.

She tried not to show it but she was just at her wits end. Her hope of Natsu finding her was slowly dissipating. It was her job to survive this, she just didn't see how that was going to happen.

"I'll see you soon dear, make sure to be nice to him, he just wants to help."

As the professor keyed in the code to get out of the door, it was the first time that Lucy was actually able to see the numbers he had pressed. He was always careful to shield the keypad away from her sight. Her mind scrambled to remember the sequence.

 _'Nine, five, two, seven, two.'_

The sound of gloves being pulled on caught her attention and suddenly, said hands were feeling over her abdomen. Poking and prodding. He pulled up her clothing and examined her closer.

It was over within seconds and the doctor removed his hands from Lucy's skin. He turned his head to look at the mirrored glass that lined the wall of the room and nodded his head.

 _'Why is he nodding at them? What's going on?'_

As quickly as he appeared, he had disappeared and left her alone, still shackled. The professor's voice sounded from the speakers in the room and his words left Lucy feeling like maybe the world really did hate her.

"Congratulations my dear, you're going to be a mother." He let out a bitter laugh and cleared his throat. "Well, you won't be a mother because you'll be dead but you're pregnant. Explains everything doesn't it?"

After a slight hiss of feedback, she was left in silence. The shackles somehow unlocked themselves and fell limply off the table. Lucy took this opportunity to wrap her arms around her stomach, trying her best to protect where an innocent life was growing.

She didn't know what she was going to do if they made it out of this, she hadn't planned on having children, she was practically a child herself.

All she knew for sure was that now she had to get out of there, for that little life inside of her. For Natsu. She now had a huge reason not to give up.

 _'I'm getting out, tonight. No matter what.'_

* * *

 _'Nine, five, two, seven, two.'_

Natsu stopped running, which in turn made Gray run smack into the back of his body and the two landed in a messy heap on the floor.

"What the hell flame breath, why did you stop?" Natsu shook his head and tried to concentrate on those numbers. He had heard Lucy's voice in his head. Saying those numbers. Maybe if he concentrated hard enough, he could hear her again.

"Be quite Gray, I can hear her." Gray opened his mouth to speak but Natsu shoved him backwards and covered his own ears with his hands. _'Concentrate.'_ He thought to himself.

Fractions of thoughts were floating in his head, a word here, a feeling there. Neither of them were good. Lucy was definitely not safe.

 _'Come on baby, give me something I can work with.'_

 _'Congratulations my dear, you're going to be a mother.'_

Natsu's eyes shot open and he fell flat on his back, losing his focus. He had felt what she felt, the cool metal table she was being shackled to, the icy fear spreading through her body as a man spoke to her. Everything.

"She's pregnant?" He mumbled, slightly dumbstruck, while his mind was moving a mile a minute.

"What are you talking about idiot?"

Gray decided to keep away from Natsu's arms reach this time but he was still curious as to what had happened.

"You don't look so good." Gray couldn't help but notice how Natsu's face had lost any ounce of color it had had and was now almost white.

"We need to move faster." Natsu growled, taking a step forward, a sweet smell floated underneath his nose. Something familiar. Something that was his.

"She's this way." And without warning, he ran off again.

* * *

Alarms were blaring as Lucy ran through the compound. Once she had entered the key code and slipped through the door, everything went crazy. She ran and didn't look back. She heard people screaming for her to stop, she felt them shoot something at her but nothing could make her stop running, not now.

A door had appeared at the very end of the corridor, the exit. Breathing a sigh of relief, Lucy gave herself another push forward and shoved her entire body weight against the wood. The adrenaline coursing through her veins gave her the strength to launch her leg at the door.

It groaned loudly but with another solid kick to the center, it cracked wide open. With the night air chilling her exposed skin, Lucy held back the urge to cry out in happiness as her feet carried her to her freedom.

"You didn't think it was going to be that easy did you darling?" The professor was now standing in front of her and caught her body as her eyes saw black.


	19. Chapter 19

"This isn't right, you can't treat people like this." Lucy clawed at her captors arms as they dragged her back inside the compound, but past where she usually stayed. They continued yanking her frail body until they entered a darkened section of the building.

The guards were scarce but the ones that they did pass were holding a special type of weapon, it didn't look like a regular gun.

"Noticing the guns?" The professor let out a short snort of laughter and held his hand out for the guard holding Lucy to stop. Taking the gun out of one of the men's holsters, he pointed it in between Lucy's eyebrows and loaded the barrel.

Her breath caught in her throat as she stared down the man who was potentially going to cause hers and her child's death, unsure whether it was because she had come so close to freedom or that she had finally lost the last shred of sanity she had left but she felt no fear.

The thought of dying sounded almost peaceful.

 _'Don't give up. You have somebody else to fight for.'_

Images of Natsu's smiling face flooded her brain, the fun times and adventures they had shared together. They were both so young, yet the things they had endured had forced them to mature.

How could she leave him alone in such a cruel, unforgiving world?

 _'I **won't** leave him.'_

Deep inside of herself, she felt something wake up from a deep slumber. It ignited a fire in her heart and sent it coursing through her veins. Her fingers were itching to rip off the smug grin from her captors face but the magical restraints they had forced upon her were secured tightly around her wrists, keeping her immobilized and practically powerless.

But why did she feel like they were weakening slightly?

As she tried to peek a glance down at them, she had to force her eyes not to widen in shock. The magical energy was dripping away, almost as if it were being melted. Was her fire magic burning through it?

It should have been nullified by the restraints. But then again, when the magic council created these magical weapons to use against rogue mages, they did not know about dragon slayers or how their magic was on a whole other level to that of regular mages.

"This gun has been modified so that it will freeze that fire that is running rampant around your body." It felt as if Lucy's heart had stopped beating as she listened to his words.

"So if you were to get shot by one of these bullets, your recently acquired dragon slayer powers would be null and void."

The professor's eyes glinted behind his glasses and a sadistic smile stretched his thin lips. "I wonder what impact that would have on your unborn child? I'm sure it needs to feed on your magical energy, but what if you don't have any of that left? Well surely it would die."

 _'The whole point of this kidnapping was to take my heart and steal my dragon slayer powers, he's bluffing.'_

Feeling her heart slowly begin to pump back to life, she tried to hide the smug smile that wanted to take over her face. This guy was the worst at bluffing. There was no way they'd risk killing her before dissecting her and stealing her powers.

"You can't get rid of my powers." Lucy said firmly. "You need-"

Pressing his cold finger against her lips, she fought the burning sensation of bile rising up her throat at being touched by him.

"Quiet. It won't get rid of your powers, just send them to sleep for a short while. But even being without them for a couple of hours would have a massive impact on your child wouldn't it?"

Her hand instinctively flew to her abdomen, where the smallest of swells could be felt. Clearly, dragon slayer's children grew at a much faster rate than regular humans. It had been less than month and she could feel her stomach becoming rounded already. She wanted Natsu to be able to feel it to.

"Now, if you want to behave and do as I say, I might just allow you to survive long enough to see your child's face before I rip out your heart."

Lucy nodded her head slowly and tucked her chin against her chest.

"Good." The professor murmured. "Now, let's go meet your boyfriend, I think he should be reaching the compound around about now. A dragon slayers heart along with his mates? That would be the cherry on top of the cake."

As the words left his lips, a siren sounded, echoing around them. His eyes glowed as he glared at Lucy's pale face. "Come on sweetheart, it's time."

* * *

"Natsu." Lucy's voice was nothing more than a mere whisper flitting past his ear and leaving with the wind. He was certain that this was the place where she was being held. A large prison like compound was looming just ahead of where he and Gray were currently stood. Lucy's scent was everywhere, it was suffocating.

It wasn't the aroma he was used to. This one was mingled with fear, pain and her own suffering. It was stitched into her soul. And it was all he could feel.

"Gray, she's hurting." Natsu had never felt so vulnerable. His heart was on his sleeve, for the world to see. It had been since the day Lucy was stolen away from his fingers. No matter how strong he thought he was, he would always be weak for her.

 _'Why did I let us walk into the cottage? I'm so stupid.'_

His dragon snuffed at his remark.

 _'You are stupid but it is up to you to fix this. We can do this, on our own, we are weak. But together, we are stronger than anything in this world. Up ahead.'_

Natsu's bloodshot eyes followed the muddy trail waiting in front of him and he saw something that made his blood run cold and his heart stop in his chest.

"Lucy?" A pale girl with blonde hair and vacant brown eyes was slowly walking along the pathway. Her feet were bare and her arms were bruised.

It was her. His feet started to slowly take him towards her, his eyes almost unbelieving. "Lucy! It's me." Her head moved to the side and she tucked her hair behind her ear. As her hand brushed the golden strands over her shoulder, she tapped the back of her neck twice and pointed behind them.

"Natsu, please run." A normal person would not of heard her murmur those words or noticed the trembles travelling up her legs as she walked. But he did. Natsu noticed everything when it came to Lucy Heartfilia.

"Gray, watch my back." The raven haired mage nodded once and turned his back to the pair, ready to defend them against whatever was lurking in these woods. Nothing was stopping him now, she was within his grasp. He could hear her breathing, could see her moving. He could save her.

No, he **would** save her.

"Come on Luce, we can go home." In his over excitement, as he ran towards her, the toe of his shoe caught a slightly pointed stone, sticking out from the ground. His body fell to the ground with a sickening thud, the pain of hitting the stony floor made his gut tense and his vision blur.

His hands reached out for her, why couldn't he get up? What was that stinging feeling in his neck?

"Lucy?" He choked out. She was stood less than five feet from him. A man had appeared by her side and had secured his arm around her, steadily directing her away from Natsu's crouched body.

"Lucy!" He roared with all of his strength, but she ignored his cries and allowed herself to be led away. He could smell her tears as they slid down her cheeks and fell to the earth below.

The professor glanced over his shoulder at Natsu who was now slumped on the muddy floor, a large dart was sticking out of his neck and his face was slowly turning a sickly shade of gray.

 _'You fool. You blew it. I cannot help you now.'_

His inner dragon let out a long sigh and disappeared into the recesses of his mind. "No." Natsu growled as his fingers dug into the grass below his fingers. His alter ego halted his internal movements, interested in what was going to happen next.

"You're mine." Pulling his heavy body forward, even just a centimeter, it gave him strength to be closer to her. Did it give her strength too?

"Fight Luce, I'm right here."

"I love you Natsu, I'm so sorry, please run." Why did it sound like she wasn't going to be saying those words to him again? So many questions and so little time.

He knew, deep in his heart that this was make or break for them.

"Sorry I'm late flame brain, some guys trying to keep me busy." Gray's half naked body leapt over the dragon slayers slack form and for the first time in his life, Natsu actually loved that ice prick.

His ice encrusted fist flew over Lucy's head, her hair flew across her face from the wind that accompanied the punch and she flinched as he hit the man square in the face.

The bridge of his glasses snapped from the punch and fell uselessly to the floor.

Natsu let out a snort of shock at the brutal force Gray had just used, he had just as much emotion backing him as Natsu did, why was he only just realizing this now? Gray loved her too.

He wanted to help save her almost as much Natsu did. It was selfish of him to try and push away his help, he knew that now and he was so thankful that he had allowed Gray to pursue her along with him.

Pulling Lucy's frail body up into his arms, Gray spun on his heel and leant down to pick up the limp dragon slayer too but was pushed away.

"Don't be an idiot, you can't carry both of us. Go." Gray scoffed and with strength he didn't know he had, flipped Natsu over his shoulder and ran like the hounds of hell were nipping at his ankles.

The man that had been with Lucy who was lying dazed on the floor, was now viciously blowing a whistle, shouting for people to hurry after them. But no reinforcements appeared, had they abandoned their comrade?

"Good to have you back Luce." Natsu twisted his head so he was facing his mate's bruise stained face. Her eyes were closed tightly and she seemed to be whispering to herself. He struggled to hear her over the stomping of Gray's feet.

"Please don't wake up. Please don't wake up."

Her voice was getting more and more desperate until Natsu found the strength to move his fingers ever so slightly so they trailed across her bare wrist.

"I found you." He murmured. Lucy gasped gently and slowly opened her eyes. They were bright as a sunset now as they stared at him. "You found me?" She was asking him if he had actually found her?

 _'She must think that this is all a dream.'_

"I found you Luce and I promise, I will never let you go again." Yawning in his mind, his alter ego seemed to come back into action and took over the majority of Natsu's functions.

 _'I know I said we'd share this body but right now, you need me more than I need you. What they have put our mate through is unacceptable and I will tear them apart, limb by limb.'_

Feeling his body flood with adrenaline, it burnt away any of the toxins that he had been injected with and re-lit the fire in his belly.

Kicking himself off Gray's shoulder, Natsu's feet carried him back in the direction where that motherfucker was. The one who had been keeping Lucy against her will. His eyes gleamed dangerously as he saw the little fat man still cowering on the floor with that stupid little whistle still being blown.

Natsu's lips came up in a vicious snarl as he approached the man, showing off his razor sharp canines and letting him know that even though he had the capability to tear his neck open in one fell swoop, he wasn't planning on making his death that easy.

He wanted to torture him. To make him suffer. To make him experience true fear.

As he took a step towards his, his hand reached backwards, preparing for a devastating attack. "Natsu, come back."

Lucy's weak voice jolted his arm, his alter ego wanted to tear this guy apart, piece by piece, real slowly. But Lucy needed him more.

"You're dead." He whispered to the cowering man below him with a sadistic grin on his face.

His clawed fingers flew towards him and cut through his skin like paper. He had wanted to torture him, to make him feel everything that Lucy had been forced through but he didn't have time to waste on a sick freak like him when he could be spending it with her.

He would come back and taste the blood of all of them. To protect Lucy, he would burn the world to the ground.

His blood splattered against the grass and his body fell to the floor with a harsh thud. All that could be heard now was the man's harsh breathing as his life spilled away onto the forest floor.

"I'm coming Gray." Now completely spent, Natsu wobbled through the treeline to where Gray was stood with Lucy slumped on his back.

"I'll take her." Shrugging his shoulders, he knew it wasn't something worth disputing with the dragon slayer, even if he was running on fumes, he needed to be the one to hold her. To whisper sweet words to her.

"I love you." Lucy mumbled softly as Natsu took her in his arms and secured her against his chest. Her nose caressed the skin of his neck but sensing that she was finally safe, her body fell slack as she lost consciousness.

"This is far from over. We need to warn the other dragon slayers." Natsu knew that the ball was very much in his court now. Gray grunted his agreement and stared over his shoulder at the hell hole Lucy had been contained in.

"You need to let us help you, alone, you're screwed. But with your family." His cold hand grasped Natsu's warm one and squeezed tightly. "We can do anything."

"Yeah." Natsu was itching to go back there and burn it to the ground so it was nothing but ash and rubble but Gray was right. They were in no state to fight and they had what they came for.

"Fairy Tail will bring them to their knees."

* * *

"Now, how are you feeling dear?" Deep inside the compound, a woman with purple hair and vacant eyes sat, waiting.

"Are you still waiting for him? I don't think he's coming Kinana." Her empty eyes glanced at the man talking to her, the man responsible for her suffering.

She hoped that when her mate finally arrived, he would rip her captor's guts out and shove them down his throat.

"He'll come and when he does, you'll wish you'd never been born." She whispered.

The man pulled his white lab coat back on and rolled his eyes at her words. "We'll see dear, we'll see."


	20. Chapter 20

**A/N : Hello my little Chicas & Chicos, I can't apologies enough for the delay on this chapter and how it isn't quite as long as some others. But the updates will always come, just not a frequent as I'd like to do them boo. Thank you for the continued follows & favorites, you guys are just awesome. **

"Natsu." A voice softer than silk and sweeter than honey danced along the breeze and encircled his body within it's warmth. But something had already caught his attention, just in the distance, he could see his cottage was engulfed in blue flames. Flames that did not belong to him. Flames he could not control.

At the sight of such intense magic, it took every ounce of his willpower not to heed their desperate call. They were whispering in a voice he loved, begging him to come into their embrace. He really wanted to but something was halting his footsteps…

A glimpse of golden hair flew past his peripheral vision, going in the opposite direction of his home. He instinctively turned but the flames began to beckon him once again, stray tendrils reached out for him, licking desperately at his ankles. They constricted around him, engraving their presence into his skin and dragging him with ease into the dew covered grass. Lucy was becoming a glowing haze in the distance, his fingers reached out for her, a last ditch effort before he was fully consumed by the flames.

As the heat began to steal away his consciousness, a ray of light shone above him. Then his head collided with the wooden planks of his bunk bed cot at the guild house. After letting out a stream of curse words, his eyes searched frantically for any sign of those mysterious blue flames that continued to haunt him. But as always, they were nowhere in sight. It had just been another bad dream.

Lifting the end of his scarf, Natsu wiped off the beads of sweat that had accumulated on his forehead and let out a shallow breath. It was a very rare occurrence when he actually perspired but these dreams that had been plaguing him for the past week, the fire… It felt hotter than the flames of a dragon.

Staring up at the now cracked wood that was just managing to support the bed above him, he wasn't shocked that he had fractured it again. Black scorch marks were also faintly there, like they had been singed by flames...

A blue tail trailed from the top bed, soon followed by the rest of his body. Happy peeked curiously over the side of the bunk bed and pulled a sad smile. "Another nightmare?" Natsu patted the spot next to his pillow for him to take, which he did eagerly. Leaping down, he was quick to slide himself under the quilt and make himself comfortable. Happy's ears tucked themselves neatly against his head as he nuzzled against Natsu's side, in a subtle attempt to comfort him.

"Don't worry about it buddy. It's just a dream, dreams can't hurt me." That's what he wanted to believe but the heat that he had felt was real. It was getting worse. And so was Lucy's condition. He couldn't help but feel like they were connected but how? That fact continued to elude him.

Soft purrs escaped from Happy's mouth as he finally fell into sleep's deep embrace, Natsu was sure that his dreams would be full of nothing but Fish and Charle.

 _'Lucky Cat.'_

Seeing the love of his life deteriorate right before his eyes and not being able to do anything was destroying him. For the first time in her life, Porlyusica was clueless on what was wrong with Lucy. She was just getting weaker and weaker. No matter how many times Wendy healed her, the next day she would be even worse.

As his eyes began to grow heavy again, a loud boom resonated throughout the guildhall, it practically shook the foundations of the building. Natsu would recognize that noise anywhere. It wasn't just anything, it was a dragon's roar. Leaping with ease down the staircase, he used his momentum and propelled himself to the front doors of the guild. With careful precision, he slowly cracked them open and peered through the gap.

"Which slayer is it? We're kind of busy in here."

A smoky laugh that sounded close to a sob was all that greeted him, it intrigued Natsu enough to open the door fully, only to see that it was Cobra stood there with a distraught look on his face. His forehead was creased, a deep scowl that looked as if it had been there for days had etched their mark on his tanned skin.

 _'Wow he looks like shit.'_

Letting out a mirthless laugh, a cold smile stretched Cobra's face, revealing his sharpened canines that protruded from his mouth and pressed against his lower lip. "I got your message, a warning for the dragon slayers to keep a close eye on their mate? Real funny Dragneel."

No longer lying slack at his side, Cobra's fist was suddenly encrusted with amethyst scales and flying with immense speed towards Natsu's face.

"Little late for that don't you think! How could you leave her there? I'm going to fucking kill you, you're nothing but scum!"

Before his attack could meet Natsu's shocked face, a vast wall of ice erupted between the two dragon slayers, easily separating them and absorbing the force of the poison dragon slayers fist. It wouldn't keep them apart for long but enough to get some sense out of Cobra.

"Leave who where? You can't just come barging into our guildhall and throwing punches." Gray's voice was calm, it had to be otherwise if this got out of hand, there would be no guild hall, not when two dragon slayers butted heads.

"You left my girl to rot in that place, you pink haired fuck." Natsu rolled his eyes at everyone's go to insult.

"Your girl? I don't know what you're talking about Cobra." This seemed to enrage the man even more as he landed a solid punch on the ice wall. A hairline fracture began to spread from the point of impact, indicating the end of the barricade's usefulness.

"Kinana, she was there with Lucy and you left her!"

Understanding finally dawned on Natsu just as the ice crumbled and fell at their feet. Finally face to face, Natsu held his hands up, submitting to him. "I had no idea they had other people there, I didn't even go inside. But we can help you get her out of the-"

"I don't want your help." His voice was overflowing with emotion as he attempted to punch Natsu again but came short and fell down to his knees, a shell of himself. "I don't want it but I can't do it alone."

"What is going on down here?" Upon hearing Mira's voice, Natsu and Gray stood up straight, a reflex that was well remembered when the take over mage sounded angry. Cobra's eye narrowed at the sight of another person showing up, clearly he was feeling outnumbered and vulnerable. He wasn't to know what would happened if he growled at Mira...

As the noise rumbled from his lips, she was at his side in an instant and holding his lips together with two clawed fingers. His eye was now open wide and staring fearfully at the she devil now kneeling in front of him. The waves of magic coming from her knocked the two fairy tail mages back a step.

"I'll ask again." Mira's voice had gotten a fraction deeper, which was what happened whenever she activated her satan soul. "What is going on down here?"

Now it could have been from the pure shock of being completely taken down by a women, or the fact that he was sporting an impressive amount of war wounds from some kind of fight but Cobra became limp in Mira's arms. Dropping her magic instantly, her hair fell down to her shoulders and she was back to her normal self but was now overcome with concern for the dragon slayer. "Oh my, he's in a pretty sorry state. Let's take him up to the infirmary."

Once they'd managed to lug his body up the stairs and into an available bed, they'd woken up everyone that was in the building. Natsu felt a shiver dance up his spine as he sensed that they had woken up a sleeping dragon…

"What the hell is so damn important that you have to scream the guild hall down at this time?" Lucy's usually soft voice was thick with sleep and the scowl that was etched on her beautiful face made everyone take a step back, even Mira was cautious around Lucy recently.

Despite her fragile state, her temper easily rivaled the takeover mage's. Her bloodshot eyes flickered down to Cobra who was lying haphazardly on one of the beds.

Her hand instantly traveled down to her swollen stomach, holding it protectively. "Why is he here? I don't want him anywhere near us." As she began to retreat away from the unconscious dragon slayer, a jolt of heat came from her. Natsu could sense her magic was quickly becoming unstable and leapt to her side in an attempt to absorb most of the blow. Despite being fireproof, her heat still held a sting. It reminded him of the blue flames in his dreams...

Once the burst was over, her body fell slack against his side, almost cold to the touch. This happened whenever Lucy got herself worked up and was the reason why Natsu would do anything to keep her calm. It was like her body was rejecting the magic whenever she used it.

Despite Natsu's protests, Porlyusica all but insisted that Lucy sleep in her own room at the guild for her own safety and everybody elses. It was a room on the top floor of the guild that had wards set up my Freed and Levy to control her magic and monitor if and when it fluctuated.

Nobody was allowed to stay in there with her as it would make the magic readings unreliable. It was maddening not being able to stay by her side day and night. The dragon inside of him practically purred at being so close to her again. It had been a while since he had seen her face...

Cobra's gravelly voice disturbed the silence. "Her neck." Natsu glared over his shoulder at the dragon slayer. "What about her neck? It's my mating mark." Pushing himself up into a sitting position, he rolled his good eye and let out a growl of annoyance. "There's something in her neck, can't you smell it? You're more stupid than I thought."

Lucy's fingers traced the mating mark that her kidnappers had constantly toyed with. What was it that Cobra could smell that he couldn't? He knew her scent better than anyone, if something was different with it, he would have been the first one to notice it...

Before Natsu could investigate, Lucy's fingers had transformed into sharp talons as she began to rip off the crimson scales, discarding them to the floor to enable her to dig deeper into her pale flesh.

It was over before Natsu could even blink, his scream of protest died in his throat at the sight of the glowing lacrima that was pulsating beneath her flesh. Lucy didn't flinch as she peeled her skin back to reveal the crystal, nor did she when her blood began to pour from the gaping wound.

"Move." Cobra barked at Natsu, who was stood rigid in place as he continued to stare in shock at the foreign object that was embedded in his mate's neck. How had he not noticed it but Cobra did from one sniff? The shame was washing over him, wave after wave.

Growling at how close he had gotten, Lucy was very vocal about how unhappy she was at being in such a close proximity with Cobra. His lips stretched into a smirk at her reaction. "Calm down blondie, I won't hurt you. Much."

With pinpoint precision, he tilted Lucy's chin to the side and reached into her flesh. His fingers were nimble enough to pop out the Lacrima with little to no effort, he dropped it to the floor but grinned at Lucy's shocked face. "Would you like to do the honor princess?"

With a shimmer in her eye, she gave Cobra a small nod and began to eye up the glowing gem. "Don't mind if I do." She made quick work of smashing it into the ground until it was nothing but dust.

"They must have placed that inside you to soak up as much of your magic as possible."

Mira eyed the place where it used to be, clearly impressed at how fast she worked. "They won't be taking your magic any time soon unless they want to join that lacrima in oblivion."

Clearing his throat, Cobra tilted his head to the side to examine the mages stood in front of him.

"Now I want to make a deal Natsu and since I just saved _your_ girl, maybe you'll do me the pleasure of lending me your power to help save mine?"

* * *

 **A/N : Action ensues in chapter Twenty One, Cobra & the gang will be hitting the road on the hunt for blood. Thank you for reading! See you next time. **


End file.
